Radha's Mad Heart

Radha’s Mad Heart

Rupa Gosvami

Translated from the Sanskrit

i.his honey-song flute — the musethat maddens her mindii.his heart is hurricanedwith her smelliii.everything he does dancing cowherding laughingis a hook to catch the minnow of her heartiv.he pools to butter in the burningpalm of her pridev.he is dominated by the shadowof envy pirouetting through her eyebrowsvi.his mouth waters for the curses flowingfrom her lipsvii.the moonlight of his face emboldens the oceanof her love with great tidal wavesviii.he is the sapphire choker starred around her neckix.he is the bumblebee at the dark lotusof her mouth lapping the pollen of her tonguex.his monsoon chest brims with raindropsof musk from her breasts

Feature Date

August 26, 2023

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English Copyright © 2023 by Shannan Mann.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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Rupa Gosvami was a guru within the Vaisnava-Gaudiya tradition. They lived as a monk for much of their life under a tree in Vrindavan. They were also a renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet. They wrote Stavamala, a collection of poems for Radha and Krishna, around 1550.

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Shannan Mann is an Indian-Canadian writer, mother, and University of Toronto student. She has been awarded or placed for the Palette Love and Eros Prize, Rattle Poetry Prize, and Auburn Witness Poetry Prize among others. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Literary Review of Canada, Poet Lore, Gulf Coast, Strange Horizons, december and elsewhere. She is also the Founding Editor of ONLY POEMS (onlypoems.net). You can find her at shannanmann.com

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