The Eastern poetic idea defines several stages in the approach
of youth to maturity. In the first awakening of a liking, a
fondness, a tenderness for one who is not of her sex, the girl
is pictured as not thinking at all of expressing her feeling,
but as trying to cover it even from her own consciousness. If
there is a load of pain, she may let escape one cry. If there
is a great admiration in her heart, the trembling of her lips
says more than any word she utters. In the presence of her lover
she is speechless, and the expression of her emotion reaches
as far as her throat, to be instantly driven back into her heart
again. The lowering of her eyes at the sight of her lover is
the only sign that she consciously gives of her love, and though
her face may light up, she draws back her hand if he touches
it or would wish it to remain in his. She turns away her face
if he offers a kiss, and her confusion when embraced tells of
her youth.
And then comes a mysterious and exquisite time, which gives
promise of that faithfulness from which springs the fulfillment
of life. Then, with one direct look she expresses what a hundred
of her words could not explain. And shy, though most shy when
some other besides her lover is present, her gentle response
to his advances would move even the dwellers in heaven. She
gives freedom to her feelings and yet with reserve, with shyness,
she yields and yet does not yield. She carries the thought of
her lover in her heart all day and night. When she is alone
she is content to give herself up wholly to her interest in
him. But since she does not feel clearly whether in doing this
she does wrong or not, or should blame herself or not, she fights
against such thoughts, without banishing them, all the time
that the duties of the day keep her under the eyes of others.
She tells even her closest companion and friend but little of
her love, for she would hide it even after it is apparent to
all. The grace of her perplexity is winning, and with it she
fans the fire in the heart of her lover.
Then follows a full awakening; and her glance falling on
her lover is as an arrow; it pierces through his heart. Her
kiss thrills him to the depth of his being, and her embrace
holds intense joy for him. She is frank, sincere, and open;
courageously she responds to him, desiring even to express her
own emotions, as she gallantly faces the truth she has discovered.
And thus comes the culmination of youth, where abides the fulfillment
of love.
The development is undoubtedly the same in the youth of both
sexes, but for various reasons it cannot be so distinctly traced
in the growth of the boy's character. Moreover, it is the mind
of the maiden that has been the poet's central theme and that
has captivated his interest. There is something besides beauty,
there is something more than a charming loveliness in the sight
of youth that carries tenderness in the heart; and whether the
beholder actually knows of the tenderness that youth feels or
not, he cannot fail to see some effect of it. For love, like
a flame, cannot fail to give out light.
And with the birth of a response to the fascination of the
opposite sex comes the dawn of that ideal for the sake of which
creation exists, and of that hope towards which the whole of
creation is irresistibly drawn. As the Hindustani poet expresses
it, 'It was the desire of finding an ideal love which brought
me here upon earth; and this same desire of attaining the ideal
is now taking me back whence I came.'
checked 16-May-2007