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SETUBANDHA beams saddening30 the lotus faces of the soldiers' wives;31 the autumn that was, as it were, the early evening for the goddess of fortune to choose her lover;32 (at that time) Rāma's worn body was worn still more; and his eyes,33 streaming with tears, seemed to fill with tears again, because Hanumat, who had departed long ago,34 was still out of sight, even like the hope (of recovering Sītā).
36. He then espied Hanumat, who had a halo of glory,35 having achieved his task as determined before. He was, as it were, the fulfilment of Rāma's hope that readily arrived as he thought of him.
37. Hanūmat first conveyed the news about Sītā with the expression of his face, revealed by his joyful eyes, and, then, in its entirety, in words.
38. The mighty Rāma did not believe, when Hanūmat said that he had seen her; heaved a weary sigh with tears on hearing that she was pining away; wept when told 'She grieves for thee'; and embraced him, when he said she was alive.
39. He placed in Rāma's hand the jewel (sent by Sītā): it was tarnished from being fastened in her unkempt lock of hair, and seemed to be pale from anxiety, and weary with toil, and weighed down with grief.
40. Held in his folded hands, and watched by him, with its lustre dimmed by his tears-was it absorbed by his eyes? Was it questioned for news?
41. Rāma grieved over the radiant jewel, which sent forth jets of rays through the gaps between his fingers, as he, after weeping for a while, laid it on his face, like a palmful of water. 36
30. Lit. hostile to....
31. The light of the moon is unbearable to separated lovers, and supposed to close the petals of the day lotus. Here, the reference is to the women pining for their husbands, absent on the military campaigns usual in the autumn.
32. i.e., the victor in the wars of the season. The goddess of fortune is figured as an abhisărikā who goes out in the evening to meet her lover.
33. Lit. face. 34. To obtain news of Sītā. 35. Lit. a distinct lustre.
36. As if to wash his tear-stained face. The jewel is likened to a palmful of water.
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