Octavio Paz on Shiva & Parvati

Taking borrowed words ... yet again... though you do complain.

INVOCATION

Shiva and Parvati :

                             we worship you 

not as Gods

                   but as images

of the divinity of man.

You are what man makes and is not,

what man will be. 

when he has survived the sentence of hard labor.

Shiva : 

          your four arms are four rivers,

four jets of water.

                           your whole being is a fountain

where the lovely parvati bathes,

where she rocks like a graceful boat.

the sea beats beneath the sun : 

it is the great lips of Shiva laughing;

the sea is ablaze:

It is the steps of Parvati on the waters.

Shiva and Parvati:

                            the woman who is my wife

and I

       ask you for nothing, nothing

that comes from the other world:

                                                 only

the light on the sea,

the barefoot light on the sleeping land and sea.

OCTAVIO PAZ