Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

Page 270

CANTO XI
1-2. When thus the evening advanced beyond the (second) watch of the night, with the moon ascending high in the sky, and all activity ceased as the night was far spent, and the young women worried (at the prospect of war): the lord of the demons heaved a deep sigh, revealing his heart, impatient with anxiety, and saw the ten directions empty as he turned his ten faces all at once.
3. Rāvana, frustrated in his passion for Sitā, was lost in thought, sighed and grieved, rubbed his arms and shook his faces, and laughed without joy.
4. He valued his bosom, touched by Sitā as she quivered, while being carried off, but abhorred his mouths, deprived of the nectar-sweet taste of his beloved's lips.
5. Despite his efforts to the contrary, his patience wore out in his intermittently throbbing heart, which, though firm, despaired and cheered up, and became steady and despondent by turns.
6. His faces, streaming with tears on account of overmastering anguish, and partly covered with the sparse fingers of his outstretched and upturned hands, drooped on his shoulders.
7. He heard the greetings of his mistresses, lispingly uttered and sweet, and indistinct because of the lips hurt by amorous bites; but now ignored by his inconstant heart.
8. Weary of seeking a means of gratifying his passion, he left his bed and yearned for it again; sought the end of the night, but hated the day; sallied out, but turned back aguin.
9. Even in the presence of his mistresses, Sītā's name, abiding in his heart, even though he tried to suppress it, emerged simultaneously from all his mouths time and again.
10. He saw her wherever he glanced, and uttered her name whenever he talked. In his heart, inflamed with passion, she alone stayed even when he thought of aught else.
11. The cooling remedies in the shape of the flowers headed here and there in his chamber, and the fading leaves of the celestial trees, all marred by his sighs, betokened his grief.