________________
205
I must say, she knows what looking is! Passion for a man who is one's equal is right (but not for a man like you). Let her die! I will not tell you (what she asked me to tell you). Even such a dreadful thing as death is to be welcomed by her (in this situation).
A messenger addresses her friend's lover. The girl has threatened to die if she does not meet him. For this threat, see also 178 (= 739), 588 and 604 (Pāda d in 604 reads marau na bhanissan). However, when the messenger sees that the lover is unworthy of her friend she decides not to intervene. In her opinion the girl is better off dead than alive. saccam in saccaṁ jāņai datthum is evidently meant cynically here.
In the source of Ma the words marau na seem to have been partly or wholly lost, as would appear from the fact that in the accompanying Chāyā these two-words have been skipped. mar ane looks like an ad hoc attempt to fill in this lacuna: 'at her death (I will tell you)'. : For silahan ijja, found in Ma and Tp (see also 114 Ma, Ti, Tp and
ī (s11°)), beside salo of the other MSS, see Pischel § 133. For the principle underlying the decision to adopt the form found in the South-Indian recension, see above, p.165.
U, B, Y, G, 13 5; 389 T; 139 s)
13( 19 Ma, 20 Tp; 12 Bh, 13 R; K, P, 14 Missing in W.
randh anak amman iunie muhamāruan pianto
mā jhūrasu rattapādalasuandhan dhūmāi sinf na pajjalai.
katmma Ma -- jūrasu Ma, Tp; Bho, R; Y, sūrasu B; jūrasu T; S -- pādali S -- suamdh1 Ma; suaṁdhin T -- pivasto Ma; pibato B -- vijjhāi Bh; dhūmăhi P; dhūmei T -- pajalai Ma.
There is nothing wrong with your cooking. Don't be annoyed. The only reason the fire doesn't start to burn but keeps smoking is that it wants to drink your breath which is as fragrant as the red pāțalā-flower!
