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| Nayikas in Rasamanjari. Basohli Painting (~18th Century). |
At the side of the bed
the knot came undone by itself,
and barely held by the sash
the robe slipped to my waist.
My friend, it’s all I know: I was in his arms
and I can’t remember who was who
or what we did or how
~ verses of 9th century Kashmiri poetess named Vikatanitamba ( literally ‘Horrible Hind’), translated by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. Not much is known about the woman except that (like a lot of later Kashmiri poetesses) she had a sad marriage. She was married to a man with much lesser language skills than her (in fact, the guy had (like a lot of Kashmiris) pronunciation troubles).
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