Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 166

SETUBANDHA
5
27. The moonlit nights, their splendour alternating with that of the brilliant jewels, the days, assumed the beauty of a necklace on the serene bosom of the autumn.27
28. Warned by the hum of the bees, the lotus, with its stalk hidden in the water, woke up28 in contact with the rays of the sun bursting through the clouds, as if it took delight in the touch. 29. The call of the swans could be heard: it was, as it were, the sound of the bow of the god of love; the jingle of the anklets of the goddess of beauty stepping across the lotus beds; the answer of the lilies addressed by the bees.
30. (Wayfarers), after watching the lotus plant with its stalk torn up (by the birds), as if it were their beloved, with her bangles loose, took the lotus blossom, rosy and full of honey and the sweet hum of bees, for her face, flushed with wine, and uttering words sweet as the hum of bees.
31. The woodland breeze blew, rich in the fragrance of the day lotus blossoms, and laden with the swirling fresh pollen of the flowers, moist with honey. Wafting spray from the ichor of the rutting elephants, it afforded enjoyment to the vagrant bees.
32. The lotus plant that outgrew its immaturity little by little, with its thorny stalk hidden (in the water), did not turn away its blossom, while being kissed by the rays of the sun; even as a maiden, thrilling with rapture, and discarding her bashfulness by degrees, is loth to withdraw her face, while being kissed by her lover.
33. The roving unsteady bees, whitened by the pollen of the Saptaparna flowers, wiped off the thick ichor of the elephants as they served for a moment as the Camara whisks decorating their ears.29
34, 35. When thus the autumn came, with the night lotus pools in bloom, and the stars glittering in the sky, and the moon
27. The succession of moonlit nights and brilliant days is likened to a necklace of pearls interspersed with jewels.
28. i.e., burst into bloom.
29. i.e., the bees, covered with the white pollen of the flowers, settled for a moment on the moist ears of the elephants, looking like the decorative whisks.