The Maiden's Reward

Lalita took Krishna's outstretched fingers to her lips and began kissing them like the world was about to end. At the same time she was cursing her destiny for being so cruel to her. "If Krishna had to lose something," she thought, " God! Why did he not lose his flute? I would then be kissing his lips instead of his fingers."

The poem is written in Braj language which is best (though not very correctly) described as a dialect of Hindi. The poem when translated even in Hindi loses its beauty so one should understand that the following English translation retains nothing of the lyricism and enchantment of the original.

Krishna hurrying to madhuban loses his ring and Lalita following behind picks it up. She finds Krishna playing with Radha's tresses and returns the invaluable ring to him. When she asks for a reward Krishna extends his fingers and lets her kiss them. Cursing her fate, she wonders, " The world would not have ended had he lost his flute!"

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