Has Vraja’s Kánu, again
Returned to Vrndávana?
The gopiis’ anguish, their heart’s secrets
Came to [his] mind anew.

Today, the Yamuna flows upstream.
It overflows with life’s elation.
That peacock pendant of gold
in the parting of my hair* —
Where did it [my precious Kánu] fall away,
who indeed could know?

[Kánu,] the apple of the eye of gopiibháva**,
Has lost himself in the delightful arbor.
In the mind’s corner, he’s now dispersed
Into heaps of love in the garden pavilion.

Translated from Bengali

* This precious peacock pendant of gold
in the parting of the devotee’s hair
is a reference to Kánu, whose iconography suggests
that he wears a peacock-feather crest.
He is so dear and venerable to the devotee that he is,
as it were, placed on the head, just like the peacock pendant.
** Gopiibháva is a particular state of absorption in the Supreme,
wherein the devotee dances unawares of his surroundings.

VRAJER KÁNU ÁBÁR KI RE
PHIRE’ ELA VRNDÁVANE,
GOPIIR VYATHÁ PRÁŃER KATHÁ
NÚTAN KARE’ PAŔLA MANE.

JAMUNÁ ÁJ UJÁNE BAY
PRÁŃOCCHVÁSE UDVELA HAY,
SOŃÁR CIKUR SIṊKHIR MAYÚR
KOTHÁY GELA KEI BÁ JÁNE.

MADHUVANE ÁTMAHÁRÁ
GOPII-BHÁVER NAYANTÁRÁ,
KUIṊJAVANE PRIITIPUIṊJE
CHAŔIYE GELA MANER KOŃE.

15-02-1984