Story About Muna Madan

“My pain falls with my tears
but tears do not speak
and the thoughts stay within the mind.
Even tears do not speak.”

“You flowered upon the moon,
why do you forget that I will be returning?
For twenty days I will stay in Lhasa
I will travel twenty days on the road.
The cranes will return again
in the morning of a great day.
Smile at me, for if you would smile
I could raise myself to Heaven.
My intentions are to achieve or to die
so do not put a barrier of tears upon the road.”

“You tighten the knot inside my heart.
Do not return then, I will draw an unforgettable
picture of your face for remembrance.
The maidens of Lhasa dance,
they seem as if they are carved of gold,
their voices laugh like the streams,
and flowers bloom upon their cheeks
as they play on the hills and fields.
Leave my love, darkening the home and the city,
even tears do not have strength.
Maybe in darkness, memories will gleam
or flash like lightning.
And sorrow shower upon my clothes.

Madan leaves for Lhasa. After making a fortune he is returning home when he falls ill with cholera. His companions abandon him, but a kindly Tibetan nurses him back to health. Madan wants to thank him by giving him some of his gold, but the Tibetan refuses material rewards.

“What will I do with yellow gold?
My children can neither eat nor wear this gold.
My wife is dead, she is in the heavens,
the clouds are her decorations,
her jewels and gold.”

Madan reaches home, his mother is unconscious and dying.
After her death, Madan looks for Muna, but can neither find her nor
any news of her. So he goes to his sister for information.
“Your Muna went to her parents in sorrow,
when you left and did not come back.

“She left my mother alone?
How could she leave her when I was gone?”
“Muna went away from us
when she was ill herself.
So your mother sickened among her daughters
and became as a carved diamond.”
“How is Muna, who has been to see her?
who has given my Muna water to drink?”

“She does not need water, she is cured and healed,
she does not need medicinal herbs.
And my love, I would have met her
but I could not find a road to take me
to her parents’ home.”

“If she is healed why doesn’t she return,
why doesn’t she come back?”
“She searches for roads but there are no roads
to lead her back from her parents’ home.”

“This is strange, which parents’ home?”
“Over the clouds, in the city that is heavy with light.”

“My sister, tell me Muna is here.
Tell me she is upon this earth.
Tell me when she will be back.”

“She lives across the river. On the other side.
But she laughs with the flowers, dances with water,
blinks with the stars, speaks with the blackbird, and her eyes, they shine.
She weeps with the dew and when she is sad
you will see the mist sinking.”

“She is not dead, tell me she lives
tell me she is at her parents’ home.
The root of my hopes,
the wings of my mind, tell me Muna is here.
Tell me when she will be back!”

“She is not here, on this side of the earth.
She lives where sorrow does not stain,
across imagination she picks flowers of happiness
in the gardens of Heaven.”

“Cruel sister your words are death.
Letting the buds of hope open, bloom
and sway before my eyes. Making ears
swallow gulps of poison.
Muna, O Muna you were the temple of worship
and the chains of life.
Life, why did you leave?”

“Do not look upon this earth Muna
I am also coming.
With tokens of tears,
with the jewels of love
that you left behind.”