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SETUBANDHA 12. Swaying his hands, he tossed about on a bed on the floor, wide enough for his bulky frame, and sunk in the middle, with the sides turned down and crushed by his weight.
13. His lips, touching those of his mistresses out of mera courtesy, slipped aside, compelled by momentary shame, and unsteady because his heart was bent on Sītā.
14. While he deceived his jealous mistresses by laughing with one face, another face of his was clouded with grief, bearing traces of unbearable suffering.
15. With his heart fixed elsewhere, Rāvana heard, but did not clearly comprehend the talk of his mistresses, accompanied by ironic smiles, as they ruled out the certainty of his winning Sītā.
16. Laughing in his confusion, he somehow endured for a moment the utterances of his mistresses, full of jealousy and wrath, and conveying opprobrious and stern rebukes.
17. Dejected, his mistresses suspected, but failed to compre. hend clearly his fortuitous mention of their rival's name, because the last letter was suppressed, and the utterance indistinct, his throat being choked with tears.
18. Having responded1 in vain when no one had spoken to him.2 Rāvana somehow composed himself as his mistresses looked at him in speechless rage, with tears welling up in their eyes.
19. Even though his heart was elsewhere, he welcomed the (angry) looks of his mistresses, with their lips all aquiver, because their mutterings occasioned by jealousy were suppressed by decorum).3
20. As he absent-mindedly left his seat and returned to it, offering an ill-conceived excuse, he laughed at himself for a moment; while his mistresses looked at him in perplexity with jealous eyes.
21. He went to such extremes (in his distraction) that his mistresses did know his condition for certain; and having known
1. Lit. having said 'What?'
2. i.e., in his absent-mindedness he imagined that some one was speaking to him.
3. Cf. Krsna in Extracts.
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