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SETUBANDHA 87. Discontent, deep sighs, loss of sleep, pallor and weakness passed from Rāma to Rāvana while the causeway was being built.
88. Massive and lofty and formidable, the causeway stretched away, parting the sea in twain, like the hand of Death, to destroy Rāvana with his kinsmen.
89. Rāvana's heart, unrelenting by nature, and steadfast in martial zeal, was pierced by the rugged causeway, heavy with the mountains, as by a spear, even though it was far away.
90. The trees on the slopes of the causeway were plain to view, with the bees clinging to the flowers drenched with the water of the heaving sea, and the drooping young shoots flickering on the mountains on the flanks. .
91. Portions of the causeway, built of crystal rocks, and interspersed between the mountains, seemed at places to be rent in the middle, being similar in colour to the tranquil sea.56
92. Peaks of the Himālaya, covered with snow, and those of the Malaya, fragrant with the crushed sandal trees, could be clearly recognised, even though built into Nala's Way.
93. The causeway looked like the extensive shore-line of the sea,57 being rocked by the rush of the waters advancing and receding, and filled with the monsters of the deep.
. 94. The lions that fell into the sea when the mountains were thrown in, were seen slowly emerging from the waters, and resting on the flanks of the causeway, cumbered with their heavy mane drenched with water.
95. The animals of the eastern and western parts of the sea that had gone to see the western and eastern parts respectively,58 saw their homes no more, 59 their way being barred by the bridge.
56. i.e., the waters of the sea, visible through the transparent rocks, seemed to flow through gaps in the causeway.
57. Lit. The extensive paths of the seashore appeared also on the causeway. Some take vela in the sense of waves, which are explained as sweeping over the causeway.
58. i.e., before the building of the causeway. 59. i.e., could not return.
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