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38
SETUBANDHA
clung to life, because his beloved was alive; and languished, because she was pining away forlorn.
9. The moon became pleasant in his eyes only when its lustre was eclipsed by the morning sun;o with its emblem, the deer, clearly visible; and its rays emptying into the foliage of the creepers of the Malaya mountain.?
10. As the night came to a close the orb of the moon, reflected in the tremulous waves, swayed as if it were the ocean's heart, perplexed as to what should be done.
11. The wind then smote the surface of the sea, as if it were Răma's war-drum at dawn, with the echoes reverberating as they filled and emerged from the caves of the Malaya.
12. The morning became clear, like the sandy shore, ringing with the call of the swans, with the darkness receding like the waters, and the expanse of the ten directions coming into view.
13. As the ocean remained steadfast in its profundity, the night having passed, wrath took possession of Rāma's countenance, even as an eclipse overtakes the orb of the moon.
14. A frown came over Rāma's firm and broad forehead, dark as a Tamāla leaf, and streaming with sweat; like as a poison creeper clings to the solid and extensive slope of the Vindhya, dark blue with Tamāla trees, and drenched with rain.
15. As he knitted his brows the face quivered with wrath, the knot of his matted hair came loose, and his eyes turned to his bow.
16. Vexed at the failure of his request, 10 his wrath increasing by degrees, Rāma, although so gentle, assumed a fierce aspect, like the sun of the epoch of destruction,
6. Rāma, being a virahin, could look at the moon with pleasure only when its lustre was gone.
7. The reference is to the belief that at daybreak the moon deposits its rays in the plant world.
8. i.e., about Rāma's crossing over to Lankā. 9. i.e., seemed unwilling to yield a passage for Rama, 10. i.e., the request to the ocean to facilitate the crossing:
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