Epilogue

There is some fluctuation in the number and order of verses in the different versions of Kalidasa’s poem. We have largely followed the poem as read by S. K. De’s quasi-critical edition, with divergences based on the texts of the two important commentators, Vallabhadeva and Mallinatha. However, unlike De, we respect the old and nearly universally accepted division of the work into two parts, the so-called “Early Cloud” and “Later Cloud,” and our enumeration of the verses reflects this. To help Sanskrit readers navigate the notes and our translation, we provide, for each verse, the numbers given in De’s edition (marked D), and those of Vallabhadeva (V, following the enumeration in Hultzsch’s edition) and Mallinatha (M, based on Kale’s edition); we also provide the opening words (pratīka) of each verse and record how our translation is based on readings that agree with either Mallinatha or Vallabhadeva in case of meaningful differences. To help readers who cannot access the Sanskrit original, we offer comments on conventions and notions that inform each verse.

 1.1 (D 1, V 1, M 1.1: kaścit kāntā-): Ramagiri in the Deccan is where Rama and Sita spent a portion of their exile. The hero is identified in the first verse as a yakṣa, a species of demigods (“person fallen from the sky”), and indeed, the commentators believe the curse also entails the inability to fly.

1.2 (D 2, V 2, M 1.2: tasmin adrau): Lonely lovers quickly lose weight, as is indexed by the immediate falling of their bracelets from their wrists.

 1.3 (D 3, V 3, M 1.3: tasya sthitvā; reading ketaka with Vallabha).

 1.4 (D 4, V 4, M 1.4: pratyāsanne).

 1.5 (D 5, V 5, M 1.5: dhūmajyotiḥ-; reading praṇayakṛpaṇāḥ with Vallabha).

 1.6 (D 6, V 6, M 1.6: jātaṃ vaṃśe).

 1.7 (D 7, V 7, M 1.7: saṃtaptānām): Alaka, on Mt. Kailash, is home to Kubera (“my master”), and presumably a city of yakṣas.

 1.8 (D 8, V 8, M 1.8: tvām ārūḍham)

 1.9 (D 12, V 9, M 1.12: āpṛcchasva): We follow the verse order of Vallabhadeva based on the internal logic: farewell with the mountain comes first, movement away from it, next.

 1.10 (D 9, V 10, M 1.10: mandaṃ mandam; we prefer Vallabhadeva’s reading, kṣaṇaparicayāt, although not reflected in our translation): the presence of such birds to one’s left is a good omen when starting a journey, even for clouds. The raindrop cuckoos are said to drink only raindrops, and these are also said to impregnate the female cranes.

 1.11 (D 10, V 11, M 1.9: tāṃ cāvaśyam): Our translation is based on Vallabhadeva’s identification of an “embrace” or pun here, according to which āśābandha can mean either a bond of hope or the web of a spider.

 1.12 (D 11, V 12, M 1.11: kartuṃ yac ca): Geese are known to nest in Lake Heart (Mānasa) in Kailash during the monsoon.

 1.13 (D 13, V 13, M 1.13: mārgaṃ tāvat).

 1.14 (D 14, V 14, M 1.14: adreḥ śṛṅgam): The idea is that “the eight elephants stationed / at every corner of the compass” might mistake the cloud as a competing ninth, and hence whip him “with their sturdy tusks.” Mallinatha also suspects a second register here concerning a poetic competition involving the poet-philosopher Dignaga (Mr. Elephant of the Direction) and Nicula (Mr. Reed), the former a foe of Kalidasa and the latter a friend of his and his cloud of a poem.

 1.15 (D 15, V 15, M 1.15: ratnacchāyā-): A rainbow (“Indra’s bow”) is another auspicious sign when starting a journey. Precious stones often emerge from anthills.

 1.16 (D 16, V 16, M 1.16: tvayyāyattam; we prefer Mallinatha’s reading vraja laghugatir).

 1.17 (D 17, V 17, M 1.17: tvām āsāra-).

 1.18 (D 18, V 18, M 1.18: channopāntaḥ).

 1.19 (D 19, V 19, M 1.19: sthitvā tasmin).

 1.20 (D 20, V 20, M 1.20: tasyās tiktaiḥ).

 1.21 (D 21, V 21, M 1.21: nīpaṃ dṛṣṭvā; reading dagdha- with Vallabhadeva). The word sāraṅga, at the start of the final line, can refer to bees, deer, or elephants. As Mallinatha explains, each creature is drawn to one of the effects mentioned in the verse: Kadamba blossoms, Kandali buds, and the smell of freshly rained upon earth, respectively.

 1.22 (D 22, V 22, M 1.23: utpaśyāmi).

 1.23 (D 23, V 23, M 1.24: pāṇducchāyo-).

 1.24 (D 24, V 24, M 1.25: teṣāṃ dikṣu).

 1.25 (D 25, V 25, M 1.26: nīcair ākhyam).

 1.26 (D 26, V 26, M 1.27: viśrāntaḥ san).

 1.27 (D 27, V 27, M 1.28: vakraḥ panthā).

 1.28 (D 28, V 28, M 1.29: vīcikṣobha-).

 1.29 (D 29, V 29, M 1.30: veṇībhūta-).

 1.30 (D 30, V 30, M 1.31: prāpyāvantīn).

 1.31 (D 31, V 31, M 1.32: dīrghīkurvan).

1.32 (D 32, V 32, M. 1.35: jālodgīrṇaiḥ): Reading adhvakhinnāntarātmā; rātrīṃ nītva with Vallabhadeva. Peacocks dance in constant frenzy from the moment the clouds arrive and throughout the monsoon season, at least in poems.

 1.33 (D 33, V 33, M 1.36: bhartuḥ kaṇṭha-): Shiva’s neck is dark ever since he swallowed the cosmic poison that came out of the primordial ocean.

 1.34 (D 34, V 34, M 1.37: apy anyasmin): Reading atyeti with Mallinatha.

 1.35 (D 35, V 35, M 1.38: pādanyāsa- with Vallabhadeva).

 1.36 (D 36, V 36, M 1.39: paścād uccair): Shiva killed his “elephant foe” (Gajāsura) and is fond of wearing his bloody hide, especially when dancing; he also dances that way when he destroys the universe at the end of every eon. Goddess Parvati is not particularly fond of “his favorite guise,” and when the cloud replaces it, she appreciates his act of devotion.

 1.37 (D 37, V 37, M 1.40: gacchantīnām).

 1.38 (D 38, V 38, M 1.41: taṃ kasyāṃcit).

 1.39 (D 39, V 39, M 1.42: tasmin kāle).

 1.40 (D 40, V 40, M 1.43: gambhīrāyāḥ).

 1.41 (D 41, V 41, M 1.44: tasyāḥ kiṃcit): reading vivṛtajaghanām with Mallinatha.

 1.42 (D 42, V 42, M 1.45: tvanniṣyanda-): reading -ramyaḥ with Mallinatha at the end of the first foot. The name Devagiri literally means “God’s Mountain.”

 1.43 (D 43, V 43, M 1.46: tatra skandam): The complex story of Skanda’s coming into the world to lead heaven’s armies against its enemies begins with Shiva shedding his hot seed into the fire, which could not withstand the heat.

 1.44 (D 44, V 44, M 1.47: jyotirlekhā-): reading kuvalayadala- with Mallinatha. If this is not clear enough from the verse, Skanda’s mount is a peacock. As for peacocks dancing to the sound of clouds, see above, in our note to 1.32.

 1.45 (D 45, V 45, M 1.48: ārādhyainam). After being rejected by the fire as too hot, Shiva’s seed eventually made its way to a clump of reeds where the wives of the sages bathed and conceived. Rantideva’s massive cow slaughter that created bloody River Charmanvati is one of those famous stories that appears, among other places, in the Mahābhārata.

 1.46 (D 46, V 46, M 1.49: tvayy ādātum): reading dūram with Vallabhadeva.

 1.47 (D 47, V 47, M 1.50: tām uttīrya).

 1.48 (D 48, V 48, M 1.51: brahmāvārtam): reading adhaḥ with Vallabhadeva. The field of the Kurus is where the great war of the Mahābhārata took place.

 1.49 (D 49, V 49, M 1.52: hitvā hālām). Balarama, Krishna’s older brother and the famous refusenik of the Mahābhārata war, is known for his love of wine.

 1.50 (D 50, V 50, M 1.53: tasmād gaccheḥ): reading anukanakhalam with Mallinatha. The Ganga, originally a heavenly river, was brought down to earth for the funeral rites of Sagara’s 60,000 slain sons.

 1.51 (D 51, V 51, M 1.54: tasyāḥ pātum): reading pūrvārdhalambī with Vallabhadeva.

 1.52 (D 52, V 52, M 1.55: āsīnānām): Shiva’s bull is white as snow.

 1.53 (D 53, V 53, M 1.56: taṃ ced vāyau).

 1.54 (D 54, V 54, M 1.57: ye tvāṃ mukta-). The versions of Vallabhadeva and Mallinatha are quite different, and we are following that of the former. One key difference between the two pertains to the body the “griffins” (our translation of śarabha, mythical lion-like beasts with four additional legs growing on their backs) are about to break, theirs or the cloud’s. We, like Vallabhadeva, believe that they end up as a joke precisely because they attack his “body.”

 1.55 (D 55, V 55, M 1.58: tatra vyaktam): reading upahṛta with Vallabhadeva.

 1.56 (D 56, V 56, M 1.59: śabdāyante): reading nirhrādī with Vallabhadeva.

1.57 (D 57, V 57, M 1.60: prāleyādreḥ): Rama of the Axe shot this pass open with an arrow that split the mountain as part of his universal rampage against all kings of the earth. Vishnu in the guise of a dwarf famously begged and obtained from Bali, the powerful demon king, a stretch of land that could be covered with only three steps. He then took on gigantic proportions, reached the sky with one step, covered the earth with the second, and used the third to drive Bali down, all the way to the netherworld.

 1.58 (D 58, V 58, M 1.61: gatvā cordhvam): Reading pratiniśam with Vallabhadeva. Ravana lifted the mountain while Shiva and Parvati were sitting on top, thereby frightening the goddess. Shiva, with the tip of his toe and perhaps more than a bit of laughter, pushed it back to place.

 1.59 (D 59, V 59, M 1.62: utpaśyāmi). Balarama, Krishna’s older brother, is mentioned in 1.49 above.

 1.60 (D 60, V 60, M 1.63: hitvā tasmin): reading with Mallinatha all the way to the third quarter, but sukhapadasparśam ārohaṇeṣu in the fourth, with Vallabhadeva. Gauri is another name for Parvati.

 1.61 (D 61, V 61, M 1.64: tatrāvaśyam): reading the first quarter with Mallinatha: valayakuliśodghaṭanodgīrṇatoyam).

 1.62 (D 62, V 62, M 1.65: hemāmbhoja-): reading the third quarter with Vallabhadeva dhunvan vātaiḥ sajalapṛṣataiḥ kalpavṛkṣāṃśukāni, but the forth with Mallinatha: nānāceṣṭair jalada lalitair nirviśes taṃ gajendram.

 1.63 (D 63, V 63, M 1.66: tasyotsaṅge).

 2.1 (D 64, V 64, M 2.1: vidyutvantam). This verse, opening the second half of the poem, is the first in a series of nine stanzas that form a single extended sentence describing Alaka.

 2.2 (D 65, V 65, M 2.2: haste līlā-). Reading lodhra with Mallinatha. The commentators take the six flowers mentioned as representing the six seasons, respectively, thus depicting Alaka as a city in which every plant is in constant bloom. The kadam, or neepa, is associated with the first rains, as is implied in the closing line.

 2.3 (D 66, V 66, M 2.5: yasyāṃ yakṣāḥ). “Free spirits” is our translation for yakṣas, see note on 1.1.

 2.4 (D 68, V 68, M 2.8: netrā nītā): Reading navajalakaṇair with Vallabhadeva.

 2.5 (D 69, V 69, M 2.7: nīvibandha-) We read, with Mallinatha, bimbādharāṇām, kṣaumam.

 2.6 (D 67, V 67, M 2.9: yatra strīṇām): Here Mallinatha’s sequence seems preferrable to us based on the progression of love scenes through the night. We read candrapādair niśīthe with Mallinatha. Moonstones begin to melt and drip at the touch of moonlight.

 2.7 (D 70, V 70, M 2.11: gatyutkampāt): reading kḷptacchedyaiḥ and muktālagnastanaparimalaiḥ with Vallabhadeva.

 2.8 (D 71, V 71 M 2.14: matvā devam): The Love God was once burnt to ashes by Shiva, whom he shot with his flower arrows. He is more careful now.

 2.9 (D 72, V 72, M 2.15: tatrāgāram): reading surapatidhanu with Mallinatha.

 2.10 (D 73, V 73, M 2.16: vāpī cāsmin): reading haimaiḥ syūtā vikacakamalaiḥ with Vallabhadeva. The geese are supposed to end up in Heart Lake for nesting, during the monsoon, when clouds are in sight.

 2.11 (D 74, V 74, M 2.17: tasyās / yasyās tīre).

 2.12 (D 75, V 75, M 2.18: raktāśokaḥ): Certain trees are known to depend on various acts by ravishing women for their budding and blossoming. The list includes the red-leaved Ashoka, which flowers only after being kicked by a woman, and the Ironwood Kuravaka, which blooms only once watered by a mouthful of liquor.

 2.13 (D 76, V 76, M 2.19: tanmadhye ca).

2.14 (D 77, V 77, M 2.20: ebhiḥ sādhoḥ): Reading lakṣayethāḥ with Mallinatha.

 2.15 (D 78, V 78, M 2.21: gatvā sadyaḥ).

 2.16 (D 79, V 79, M 2.22: tanvī śyāmā).

 2.17 (D 80, V 80, M 2.23: tāṃ jānīthāḥ / jānīyāḥ). The bird in question, the chakravaki, is the paradigm of lovers’ separation. Every nightfall, the monogamous pair is separated and caws in misery until they unite at dawn.

 2.18 (D 81, V81, M 2.24: nūnaṃ tasyāḥ): reading bahūnām with Vallabhadeva.

 2.19 (D 82, V 82, M 2.25: āloke te): Reading nibhṛte with Vallabhadeva.

 2.20 (D 83, V 83, M 2.26: utsaṅge vā): We understand mūrcchanā in the sense of the raga scales including the typical melodic phrases.

 2.21 (D 84, V 84, M 2.27: śeṣān māsān): Reading gamanadivasaprastutasya with Vallabhadeva. Flowers are part of the pattern of threshold designs made each morning by the women of the house.

 2.22 (D 85, V 86, M 2.28: savyāpārām). As read by Mallinatha, this is the beginning of a pentad of verses that are syntactically unified. All the remaining four describe the beloved as the object of the cloud’s vision. We translated only the first of these four as part of this unified statement. Vallabhadeva has a slightly different sequence. In the last quarter, however, we prefer Vallabhadeva’s reading.

 2.23 (D 86, V 87ab-88cd, M 2.29: ādhikṣāmām): A rare case where the two halves of two verse are combined differently in Mallinatha and Vallabhadeva. The twin verse here is 2.25. We went with Mallinatha.

 2.24 (D 89, V 89, M 2.30: pādān indor).

 2.25 (D 87, V 88ab-87cd, M 2.31: niḥśvāsena): Separated women avoid using hair-oil and shampoos, and their hair is thus dry and painful to the skin.

 2.26 (D 88, V 85, M 2.30: ādye baddhā): reading unmocanīyā with Vallabhadeva.

 2.27 (D 90, V 91, M 2.33: sā saṃnyasta-).

 2.28 (D 91, V 90, M 2.34: jāne sakhyās).

 2.29 (D 92, V 92, M 2.35 ruddhāpāṅga-): This must be her left eye that flutters, as the commentators explain, since a quiver in a woman’s left side is a good omen of things to come.

 2.30 (D 93, V 93, M 2.36: vāmaś cāsyaḥ / vāmo vāsyāḥ).

 2.31 (D 94, V 94, M 2.37: tasmin kāle): reading labdhanidrā yadi syāt with Vallabhadeva.

 2.32 (D 95, V 95, M 2.38: tām utthāpya): reading vidyudgarbhe, nihita-, dhīrastanita with Vallabhadeva.

 2.33 (D 96, V 96, M 2.39: bhartur mitram).

 2.34 (D 97, V 97, M. 2.40: ity ākhyāte).

 2.35 (D 98, V 98, M 2.41: tām āyuṣman): reading ātmanaḥ with Mallinatha.

 2.36 (D 99, V 99, M 2.42: aṅgenāṅgam): reading te in the fourth quarter, with Vallabhadeva. We prefer Mallinatha’s reading pratanu in the first quarter but did not incorporate it in our translation. Here begins the main message of the cloud as given to it by the yakṣa.

 2.37 (D 100, V 100, M 2.43: śabdākheyam). “Nouns and verbs”—following Mallinatha.

 2.38 (D 101, V 101, M 2.44: śyāmāsv aṅgam): Reading gāṇḍa- with Vallabhadeva, but caṇḍi with Mallinatha. This is the beginning of the nested direct speech of the yakṣa to his beloved through the cloud.

 2.39 (D 102, V 102, M 2.45: tvām ālikhya).

 2.40 (D 103, V 103, M 2.46: mām ākāśa-): reading mayā in the second line with Mallinatha.

 2.41 (D 104, V 104, M 2.47: bhittvā sadyaḥ).

 2.42 (D 105, V 105, M 2.48: saṃkṣiyeta / saamkṣipyeran): we are reading in the singular with Mallinatha.

2.43 (D 106, V 106, M 2.49: nanv ātmānam): we follow Vallabhadeva’s reading of the first line, with its double negative, which we understand as a rhetorical question.

 2.44 (D 107, V 107, D 2.50: śāpānto me): Throughout the months of the monsoon, Vishnu remains asleep on his serpent, Adishesha. His moment of waking is celebrated throughout India as Utthana Ekadasi, the eleventh day of the bright half of the Kartika month.

 2.45 (D 108, V 108, M 2.51: bhūyaś cāha). In what has become a set piece in messenger poetry, the sender provides, through the messenger, some intimate knowledge only he or she can know. This the sign referred to in the next verse.

 2.46 (D 109, V 109, M 2.52: etasmān mām). Here ends the message of the cloud as given to him by the yakṣa.

 2.47 (D 110, V 110, M 2.54: kaccit saumya): reading pratyākhyātum with Vallabhadeva.

 2.48 (D 111, V 111, M 2.55: etat kṛtvā).