‘I shall speak of the lineage of the Raghus’: Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa from the Murty Classical Library

For mastery of word and meaning I venerate the parents
of the world, who are entwined together like word and
meaning: Parvati and Parameshvara.

How incommensurate are the lineage arising from the Sun
and my mind of little scope! It is folly that makes me
wish to cross an uncrossable ocean on a raft.

A fool who wishes for a poet’s fame, I shall become a
laughingstock, like a dwarf greedily stretching up his
arms toward a fruit that only the tall can reach.

Or rather, since ancient seers have made a gateway of
speech in it, I can enter into this lineage as a thread
enters a jewel bead pierced by a diamond.

Pure from birth, working until the goal is reached, ruling
the earth up to the shores of the ocean, the paths of
their chariots ascending to the heavens,

sacrificing according to sacred prescript, honoring
suppliants according to their wishes, punishing
according to the crime, rising in accordance with the hour,
collecting wealth for the sake of giving it away, restrained
in speech for the sake of truth, wishing to conquer for
the sake of fame, becoming householders for the sake
of progeny,
studious in childhood, pursuing the pleasures of the
senses in youth, living as sages in old age, renouncing
their bodies by yoga at the end:

I shall speak of the lineage of the Raghus, although my
power of speech is slight, impelled to this insolence by
their virtues, which have reached my ears.

May those good people through whom the difference of
good and bad can be known listen to it; for it is in fire
that one can see if gold is pure or base.

There was a king called Manu, born of the sun, deserving
respect from the wise. He was the first of kings, as oṃ
is the first of the Vedic mantras.

In his pure lineage was born, even purer, a very moon
among kings, called Dilipa, as the moon was born in
the ocean of milk.

His chest was broad, his shoulders were like a bull’s, he
was tall as a sal tree; it was as if the dharma of warriors
had assumed a form fit for its tasks.

With his body, whose strength was greater than all others’,
which surpassed all other radiances, and which was
loftier than all others’, he stood over the earth like
Mount Meru.

Excerpted with permission from The Lineage of the Raghus, Kalidasa, translated from the Sanskrit by Dominic Goodall, Harunaga Isaacson, and Csaba Dez, Murty Classical Library of India.