Meghaduta

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meghaduta ( Sanskrit , m., मेघदूत, meghadūta , literally, "cloud messenger") is a poem by Kalidasa .

This short poem of just 111 four-line verses is one of Kalidasa's most famous works. A yaksha (servant of Kubera , the god of prosperity) persuades a passing cloud to take a note to his wife on Mount Kailasa after he has been banished to a place in central India for an unknown reason for a year. The yaksha accomplishes this by explaining to the cloud what wonderful views there are on the way north until it finally arrives in the city of Alaka, where the yaksha's wife is waiting for his return.

The first translation into a European language is by Horace Hayman Wilson, who translated the poem into English in 1813. Through them, Goethe also got to know the poem, who expressed his admiration in one of his Tame Xenien :

What could be more enjoyable to know!
Sakontala, Nala, you have to kiss them;
And Meghaduta, the cloud envoy,
who doesn't like to send him to soul mates!

example

II.
तां जानीथां परिमितकथां जीवितं मे द्विजीयं
दूरीभूते मयि सहचरे चक्रवाकीमिवैकाम्।
गाटोत्क्र्ण्ठां गुरुषु दिवसेष्वेषु गच्छत्सु बालां
जातां मन्ये शिशिरमथितां ग्रह्मिनी वाऽन्यरुपाम्॥ २३॥

II.23
You should know this lady, reserved in her language and lovely;
Me, her partner, who I am far away, she is my second life for me,
like a lonely female Cakravaka who has been separated from his partner:
I think this young lady, filled with deep longing,
looks different in these heavy days,
like a lotus flower struck by winter.

Cakravaka = "Cakra bird": Known for crying out at night to complain when someone is separated from his partner.

Translations

  • Meghaduta or the messenger of clouds , in: Prabodhatschandrodaja or the cognitive moonrise . Philosophical drama. Translated by Bernhard Hirzel. Zurich: Meyer & Zeller, 1846.
  • Meghaduta or the messenger of clouds . An ancient Indian elegy, copied from Kalidasa and accompanied by notes by Max Müller. Königsberg: Verlag von Adolph Samter. 1847.
  • The messenger of clouds Meghaduta . Translated by Helmuth von Glasenapp , Leipzig: Hochschule f. Graphics and Book art 1959.
  • Works. Übers., Nachw. U. Explain by Johannes Mehlig, Reclam, Leipzig 1983, pp. 231-252. (Prose translation)