निसिदिन बरसत नैन हमारे।
सदा रहत पावस ऋतु हम पर जबते स्याम सिधारे॥
अंजन थिर न रहत अँखियन में कर कपोल भये कारे।
कंचुकि-पट सूखत नहिं कबहुँ उर बिच बहत पनारे॥
आँसू सलिल भये पग थाके बहे जात सित तारे।
सूरदास अब डूबत है ब्रज काहे न लेत उबारे॥
Nisidin barsat nain hamare,
sada rahat pavas ritu ham par jabte Syam sidhare.
Anjan thir na rahat ankhiyan mein kar kapol bhaye kare,
kanchuki-pat sukhat nahin kabahun ur bich bahat panare.
Ansu salil bhaye pag thake bahe jat sit tare,
Surdas ab dubat hai Braj kahe na let ubare.
Meaning
Night and day our eyes pour rain. Since Shyam went away, the rainy season never leaves us.
The kohl will not stay in our eyes; our hands and cheeks have turned black with it. The cloth of our bodice never dries; streams run down our breasts.
Our tears have become a flood; our feet are tired, and the white and the pupils of our eyes are being washed away. Surdas says: Braj is drowning now. Why don’t you come and save it?
About this bhajan
The gopis speak after Krishna has left Vrindavan for Mathura. Surdas, who is held by tradition to have been blind, writes the whole pada about eyes: kohl running, cheeks blackened, the eyes themselves washing away. The last line turns the private grief into a public one, a whole land drowning, and calls back to the Krishna who once lifted Govardhan to save Braj from Indra’s rain. Pushti Marg temples sing it in the monsoon months.
Sursagar, Bhramargeet section; text as on Kavita Kosh