Chapter I: Rādhā first seen

_'She was a phantom of delight_ _When first she gleamed upon my sight.'_

Wordsworth.

2. 'Unstained,' literally 'without antelope.' Indian fancy sees in the moon's markings, not a 'man in the moon,' but an antelope (or a hare). Rādhā is flawless, and so lovelier than the moon itself.

4. 'Sūrm,' viz. _añjana_, otherwise rendered as kohl or collyrium, with which the lower eyelid is blackened.

10, 11. A woman's throat is commonly compared to a conch. The Shambhu (Shiva-lingam) is the nipple (cf. Nos. XVI, LXVI). The poet suggests that Rādhā's pearl necklace seems to be an ambrosial offering to Shiva, made by Kāmadeva, using the sacrificial vessel of Rādhā's conch-like throat (cf No. LI, 12).

12, 13. _'Hevene y tolde al his_
_That o nyght were hire gest.'_