A melancholy smile

Would gleam upon his awful countenance,

He, too, by day and night, and every hour,

Paid to a higher Power his sacrifice;

An offering, not of ghee, or fruit, or rice,

Flower-crown, or blood; but of a heart subdued,

A resolute, unconquer’d fortitude,

An agony represt, a will resign’d,

To her, who, on her secret throne reclin’d,

Amid the milky Sea, by Veeshnoo’s side,

Looks with an eye of mercy on mankind.

By the Preserver, with his power endued,

There Voomdavee beholds this lower clime,

And marks the silent sufferings of the good,

To recompense them in her own good time.