yathā—
sakhi kim abhavad baddho rādhā-kaṭākṣa-guṇair ayaṁ
samaram athavā kiṁ prārabdhaṁ surāribhir uddhuraiḥ |
ahaha bahulāṣṭamyāṁ prācī-mukhe’py udite vidhau
vidhu-mukhi! na yan māṁ sasmāra vrajeśvara-nandanaḥ ||
The verse — decoded
L1other
sakhi kim abhavad baddho rādhā-kaṭākṣa-guṇair ayaṁ
sakhiO friend — [she turns to her companion] vocativeहे सखी!
kim ... abhavathas he become —? [raises her first guess as a question] kim marks the questionक्या हो गया है (किम् प्रश्न को सूचित करता है)
baddhaḥtied up, boundबँधा हुआ
rādhā-kaṭākṣa-guṇaiḥby the cords that are Rādhā's sidelong glances instrumental of means; guṇa puns on 'rope' and 'good quality'राधा के कटाक्षों की डोरियों के द्वारा (गुण = रस्सी और सद्गुण, दोनों अर्थ)
ayamthis one here — [Kṛṣṇa]यह (कृष्ण)
sakhi — O friend; ayam — this one [Kṛṣṇa]; kim baddhaḥ abhavat — has he become bound; rādhā-kaṭākṣa-guṇaiḥ — by the cords that are Rādhā's sidelong glances?
हे सखी! क्या यह (कृष्ण) राधा के कटाक्षों की डोरियों (गुणों) से बँध गया है?
Friend — has he been tied up by the cords of Rādhā's sidelong glances? This is her first guess at why Kṛṣṇa never came.
हे सखी! क्या राधा के कटाक्षों की रस्सियों ने इसे बाँध लिया है? यहाँ 'गुण' शब्द दो अर्थ रखता है — रस्सी और सद्गुण।
guṇa carries a śleṣa: a 'rope/cord' (which pairs with baddha, 'bound') and a 'virtue/charm.' So the glances both rope him in and win him by their charm.
L2other
samaram athavā kiṁ prārabdhaṁ surāribhir uddhuraiḥ |
samarama battle — [what he might have launched] accusative object of 'begun'युद्ध को (आरम्भ किए जाने का कर्म)
athavāor else — [she offers a second guess]अथवा
kim ... prārabdhamhas he launched into —? [still a question] kim keeps it interrogativeक्या आरम्भ किया गया है (किम् से प्रश्न बना रहता है)
surāribhiḥwith the enemies of the gods — the demons instrumental; sura-ari = foe of the surasसुरों के शत्रुओं (असुरों) के द्वारा (सुर-अरि = देवताओं के शत्रु)
uddhuraiḥwho are formidable and unbridled [describes the demons]उद्दण्ड, प्रबल (असुरों) ने
athavā — or else; kim samaram prārabdham — has he launched a battle; uddhuraiḥ surāribhiḥ — with the formidable enemies of the gods, the demons?
अथवा क्या उद्दण्ड सुर-शत्रुओं (असुरों) ने कोई युद्ध आरम्भ कर दिया है?
Or has he thrown himself into a war with the mighty demons? Her second guess: some heroic errand has kept him away.
या फिर — क्या प्रबल असुरों ने कोई युद्ध छेड़ दिया है? 'सुर-अरि' का अर्थ है देवताओं के शत्रु, अर्थात् असुर।
L3other
ahaha bahulāṣṭamyāṁ prācī-mukhe’py udite vidhau
ahahaah, alas — [a cry of grief]अहह! हाय!
bahulāṣṭamyāmon the dark-eighth night — the 8th of the waning fortnight locative of timeबहुला-अष्टमी के दिन
prācī-mukhein the eastern quarter [where the moon shows] locativeपूर्व दिशा में
apieven though — [though the moon is now up, still he has not come] concessiveयद्यपि, फिर भी
udite vidhauonce the moon has risen locative absolute; vidhu = moonचन्द्रमा के उदित हो जाने पर (विधु = चन्द्रमा)
ahaha — alas; bahulāṣṭamyām — on the dark-eighth; prācī-mukhe vidhau udite api — even though the moon has now risen in the east...
हाय! बहुला-अष्टमी को पूर्व दिशा में चन्द्रमा के उदित हो जाने पर भी…
Alas — it is the dark-eighth night, and now the moon has already climbed up in the east, and still he has not come.
अहह! बहुला-अष्टमी के दिन पूर्व दिशा में चन्द्रमा उदित हो गया, फिर भी…
On kṛṣṇāṣṭamī the moon rises only near midnight; so 'the moon has now come up in the east' quietly signals that the night is already far gone — the point Jīva and Viśvanātha pick up on.
L4other
vidhu-mukhi! na yan māṁ sasmāra vrajeśvara-nandanaḥ ||
vidhu-mukhiO moon-faced friend — [she addresses her companion] vocative; vidhu 'moon' echoes the risen moon just namedहे चन्द्रमुखी! (विधु = चन्द्रमा, अभी-अभी कहे गए उदित चन्द्रमा की प्रतिध्वनि)
na ... sasmāradid not rememberस्मरण नहीं किया
yatseeing that / because — [this is the reason behind all her guessing] relative giving the groundकि, जो (इसी कारण से)
māmmeमुझे
vrajeśvara-nandanaḥthe son of Vraja's king — [Kṛṣṇa] vraja-īśvara = Nanda, king of Vrajaव्रजेश्वर (नन्द) के पुत्र ने (व्रज-ईश्वर = व्रज के राजा नन्द)
vidhu-mukhi — O moon-faced one; yat vrajeśvara-nandanaḥ mām na sasmāra — seeing that the son of Vraja's king did not remember me [these are my guesses why].
हे चन्द्रमुखी! [इसी बात का दुःख है] कि व्रजेश्वर-नन्दन (कृष्ण) ने मुझे स्मरण नहीं किया।
O moon-faced friend — since Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vraja's king, did not once remember me tonight, I am left guessing why. The 'yat' ties the whole verse together: his forgetting is the fact, and lines 1-2 are her attempts to explain it away.
हे चन्द्रमुखी सखी! व्रजराज नन्द के पुत्र कृष्ण ने मुझे याद ही नहीं किया — यही मेरे विषाद का कारण है। 'यत्' यहाँ कारण बतलाता है।
vidhu ('moon') sounds twice in a breath — the moon that has risen (L3) and the 'moon-faced' friend she calls to — a deliberate echo across the two lines.
अभी-अभी उदित चन्द्रमा (विधु) और सखी का सम्बोधन 'विधुमुखी' — दोनों में विधु शब्द की प्रतिध्वनि है।
Commentary — decoded
Jīva Gosvāmī
s1gloss
bahulāṣṭamyāṁ kṛṣṇāṣṭamyām ||
bahulāṣṭamyām[the verse's word] 'bahulāṣṭamī'बहुला-अष्टमी में (का अर्थ)
kṛṣṇāṣṭamyāmmeans kṛṣṇāṣṭamī — the 8th of the dark (waning) fortnightकृष्ण-अष्टमी में
bahulāṣṭamyām — [the word] bahulāṣṭamī; kṛṣṇāṣṭamyām — [is] kṛṣṇāṣṭamī, the 8th of the dark fortnight.
बहुलाष्टमी अर्थात् कृष्णाष्टमी।
Jīva glosses a single word: bahulāṣṭamī just means kṛṣṇāṣṭamī — the eighth day of the waning, dark-moon fortnight.
'बहुला-अष्टमी' का अर्थ है कृष्णाष्टमी — कृष्णपक्ष की आठवीं तिथि।
bahula and kṛṣṇa both mean 'dark,' so both name the same fortnight — and there is a quiet ring of Kṛṣṇa's own name in the date of the tryst.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī
s1avataranika
candrāvalī padmām āha—sakhīti |
candrāvalīCandrāvalī [is the one speaking] nominative — the speakerचन्द्रावली (बोलने वाली)
padmāmto Padmā [her friend] accusative — whom she addressesपद्मा को (जिससे वह कहती है)
āhaspeaks, saysकहती है
sakhi itithe verse that begins 'sakhi...' names the mūla by its opening word'सखि' इत्यादि (मूल श्लोक को उसके आरम्भिक शब्द से नाम देती है)
candrāvalī — Candrāvalī; padmām — to her friend Padmā; āha — speaks; sakhi iti — the verse beginning 'sakhi.'
चन्द्रावली पद्मा से 'सखि' इत्यादि (श्लोक) कहती है।
Viśvanātha sets the scene before decoding: the heroine speaking is Candrāvalī, and she is addressing her friend Padmā. That fixes who the 'sakhi' and 'moon-faced one' of the verse are.
चन्द्रावली अपनी सखी पद्मा से यह श्लोक कहती है, जो 'सखि' शब्द से आरम्भ होता है।
This is a nāyikā-bheda chapter, so naming the heroine matters: Viśvanātha reads the speaker as Candrāvalī and the addressee as Padmā.
s2gloss
bahulāṣṭamyāṁ kṛṣṇāṣṭamyāṁ na sasmāreti man-mādhuryasya smṛti-viṣayī-bhūtatve tasya kvāpi sthātum aśakter iti bhāvaḥ |
bahulāṣṭamyāṁ kṛṣṇāṣṭamyāmon bahulāṣṭamī, that is, kṛṣṇāṣṭamī [he repeats the date-gloss]बहुलाष्टमी अर्थात् कृष्णाष्टमी को
na sasmāra itithe words 'he did not remember [me]' [the phrase he now unpacks]'स्मरण नहीं किया' — इस पद का [तात्पर्य]
man-mādhuryasyaof my sweetness, my charm genitive — subject of what followsमेरी माधुरी का (आगे कहे जाने वाले का कर्ता)
smṛti-viṣayī-bhūtatvewere it once to become the object of his memory — [had my charm even entered his mind] locative absoluteस्मृति का विषय बन जाने पर
tasyahis — [Kṛṣṇa's]उसके (कृष्ण के)
kvāpi sthātum aśakteḥbecause he could not have stayed put anywhere [he'd have rushed to me] ablative of reasonकहीं भी ठहर न सकने के कारण
iti bhāvaḥsuch is the underlying ideaऐसा भाव है
na sasmāra iti — [she says] 'he did not remember me' [because]; man-mādhuryasya smṛti-viṣayī-bhūtatve — were my sweetness once to become the object of his memory; tasya kvāpi sthātum aśakteḥ — he could not have stayed put anywhere [away from me]; iti bhāvaḥ — that is the import.
'कृष्णाष्टमी को उसने स्मरण नहीं किया' — इसका भाव यह है कि मेरी माधुरी के उसकी स्मृति का विषय बन जाने पर वह कहीं भी न ठहर पाता।
Viśvanātha draws out her reasoning. Why does she say 'he didn't remember me'? Because — she assumes — if her sweetness had so much as crossed his mind, he could never have stayed away anywhere; he'd have come straight to her. He didn't come; so he must simply never have remembered. That is the sense of the line.
'कृष्णाष्टमी को उसने मुझे याद नहीं किया' — इसका तात्पर्य यह है: यदि मेरी माधुरी उसके स्मरण में आ जाती, तो वह कहीं भी टिक न पाता (दौड़ा चला आता)। याद न करना इसी से जाना जाता है। ऐसा भाव है।
The reading turns on Candrāvalī's self-assured pride: she takes her own charm to be so overpowering that mere memory of it would drag him to her. It is a confident, māna-tinged reading — contrast the next sentence.
s3alternative
yad vā, mama smaraṇam api na karoti dhiṅ mām iti nirvedo vyañjitaḥ ||
yad vāor else — [a second reading, left standing beside the first]अथवा (दूसरा अर्थ)
mama smaraṇam api na karoti'he does not even remember me' — [not so much as a thought] api = 'even'वह मेरा स्मरण भी नहीं करता (अपि = 'तक/भी')
dhik mām'shame on me!' [she turns on herself]मुझे धिक्कार है!
iti nirvedaḥ vyañjitaḥso nirveda — dejection, self-disgust — is what is being suggested vyañjita = hinted, dhvani— इस प्रकार निर्वेद (विषाद) व्यंजित है, ध्वनि से प्रकट होता है
yad vā — or else; mama smaraṇam api na karoti — 'he doesn't even remember me'; dhik mām — 'fie on me!'; iti nirvedaḥ vyañjitaḥ — such nirveda (dejection) is suggested.
अथवा — 'वह मेरा स्मरण भी नहीं करता, मुझे धिक्कार है!' — इस प्रकार यहाँ निर्वेद (आत्म-विषाद) व्यंजना से सूचित होता है।
Or else — and Viśvanātha leaves both readings standing, side by side — the very same line hints at nirveda, dejection: 'He does not so much as think of me. Shame on me!' On this reading it is not proud confidence that is being conveyed but self-disgust and despair.
या फिर दूसरा अर्थ — 'वह तो मुझे याद तक नहीं करता; धिक्कार है मुझे!' इस प्रकार यहाँ निर्वेद, अर्थात् अपने प्रति ग्लानि, ध्वनि से प्रकट होती है।
nirveda is a vyabhicāri-bhāva — a passing feeling of world-weary self-reproach. vyañjita marks it as suggested (dhvani), not stated outright. Do not collapse the two readings: sentence s2 hears proud confidence, s3 hears despair, and Viśvanātha keeps both.