Honour to Kama, God of Desire,
whose breath shipwrecks the flowers;
by the immaterial, airy arrows which
vanquish the three words, of Heaven
and Earth and Hell! And honour also
to Kali, Goddess of Terror!
For all things come to the ineluctable
chasm of her mouth, to be overwhelmed in
nothing.
This Triple world of ours seems only an
imperceptible reflection on that stormy sea,
or like a little vagabond carp within it. Already
that mouth has swallowed so dreadful a duration of time that even the Ancients have no count of it;
for the bold and careless lust of Kali cloaks itself in fraud against the unnumbered armies of those afflicted with a body!
~ ‘Samayamatrika’ of Kshemendra written during the reign of King Ananta, around A.D. 1050. [translation by E. Powys Mathers done in 1927]
