The Cloud Messenger

Banished from his home and separated from the wife he adores, a celestial being — a yaksha — stands on a hilltop in central India and pours out his heart to a passing cloud. He asks the cloud to carry a message of love across the subcontinent, over rivers and mountains, to the far-off city of Alakā, where his beloved waits in grief. So begins the Meghadūta, the Cloud Messenger, the most beloved lyric poem of Kālidāsa, ancient India's greatest poet. This edition renders Kālidāsa's luminous Sanskrit into clear, present-day English that preserves the poem's warmth, humor, and aching tenderness. The journey of the cloud — through the Vindhya hills, the sacred Narmadā, the splendid city of Ujjayinī, and the snows of the Himālaya — becomes a meditation on love, longing, and the hope that sustains us through separation. With an introduction, glossary, and notes, this is the Cloud Messenger for today's reader. Part of The Sacred Wisdom Library.