| |
| AT length, O longing soul, thy foot hath trod | |
| On holy ground; and at the portals dim | |
| Of Elephanta’s sacred cave, I bow | |
| In silent worship of its mysteries | |
Unfathomable!
Before thy shrine supreme, | 5 |
| O Bhagavat! I stand in wondering maze | |
| Of meditation lost; and o’er the past— | |
| Expanse immeasurable of years unknown— | |
| I gaze in undefined perplexity! | |
| Brahma, within his lotus-cup, in doubt | 10 |
| And grief involved, knew scarcely less of Thee | |
| Than I! And in the voice mysterious, | |
| That over the weird waste of waters came, | |
| Unto his anxious ear, learned scarcely more | |
| Of whence or where or how he gained his birth, | 15 |
| Than murmurs now among these echo-tones. | |
| |
| Anon, beside the brimming brink I kneel | |
| Of Vishnu’s sacred spring; and, fearful, taste, | |
| With trembling lips, of the amreeta’s juice, | |
| Immortal flood! The magic-mingled draught | 20 |
| Thrills through my shuddering veins, and seems to chill, | |
My very blood!
But who unmoved can gaze | |
| Upon thy hideous and colossal shape, | |
| O Siva! fell Destroyer! Prince of Death! | |
| What terror-stricken tens of thousands, here, | 25 |
| Before thy gory feet have knelt, and thus, | |
| With tortures terrible, sweltering in their blood, | |
| Have died, with dismal groans, that groaned again | |
| In endless echoes through this dreadful cave, | |
| So vast, so monstrous, so incalculable! | 30 |
| Beyond the understanding of my soul | |
| Are these stupendous mysteries! I stand | |
| And gaze around, above, beneath; yet still | |
No key I find to the enigma!
Where | |
| Are those whose superstitious skill hewed out | 35 |
| These lofty pillars from the solid rock? | |
| Whose hands, with curious cunning, patient wrought | |
| These sculptured capitals, gigantic, beautiful? | |
| Where, too, are those whose sacrilegious zeal | |
| Defaced and mutilated their magnificence? | 40 |
| The multiplying echoes answer, “Where?” | |
| Destroyer, and destroyed, buried beneath | |
| The silent, ever deepening dust of ages lost! | |
| |
