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CANTO IV
1. Thereupon the army of apes that had kept still at the first words of Sugrīva, but were afterwards1 provoked and ashamed,
tirred themselves; even as a day lotus bed that closes at the sight of the moon bursts into bloom at the advent of the day.
2. Ardour for advancing to Lankā dominated at the same moment the hearts of the numerous apes, elated and rid of gloom; just as the light of the morning sun spreads all at once over the numerous peaks of mountains coming into view, with the darkness swept away.
3. Their joy, like their natural traits, began to be manifest more and more. It seemed to be the buoyant look of their pride;2 the glow of the fervour of their heart; the prelude to their valour in war.
4. Rşabharent asunder a mountain peak, and smashed it on his left shoulder, raising a cloud of dust froin its red earth, with the uprooted serpents winding about; while his cheeks were hit by the splashing cascades.
5. Nila rubbed his rugged and swarthy breast that appeared to be reddish as the hair stood on end. With joy hidden in the heart, it was like a cloud penetrated by the moon. 4
6. In the moonlight of joy, Kumuda burst into laughter, even as a night lotus bursts into bloom, breathing forth a sweet smell, with his lips opening like the petals, and the shimmer of his teeth plain to view like the dense filaments.5
7. Mainda shook a sandal tree on the seashore, loosening the earth, with the branches, pushed with both hands, quivering and rustling, and the serpents6 dropping here and there.
1. Cf. 3.53 ff.
2. Pride is personified, the joy of the apes being figured as the cheerful aspect of their pride.
3. The names in this and the following verses are those of the leaders of the apes.
4. The breast is likened to a cloud, and the joy in the heart to the moon,
5. There is a pun on the name Kumuda meaning a night lotus which blooms in the moonlight.
6. i.e., the serpents that had coiled round the branches. Cf. 1.60.
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