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SETUBANDHA
115
58. With eyes closed as she swooned, she felt only bliss free from the pangs of separation, with the sorrow caused by Rama's death forgotten for the moment.
59. On her bosom covered with the breasts, even her deep breathing was not observed in the least; it was only on her quivering lower lip that it was discerned.
60. She lay weary on the ground even at the end of her swoon, breathing faintly; and opened her eyes, with the pupils slowly rolling, and bedewed with streaming tears.
61-4. She beheld Rama's head, roughly lopped off by the impact of a forceful sword, the corners of the eyes being blackened by friction with the feathers of the arrows, drawn full length as they were fixed in the bow.
The passage of the throat was blocked by the flesh, shrinking around the cut, and grown pale from bleeding; while the saffron powder on the blade of the sword had partly adhered to the slit in the neck, when the weapon menacingly descended upon it.
The tips of the teeth were slightly visible, clenched at the root of the severely bitten lower lip; while the gash in the throat was black, being filled with a lump of gore.
The frown and the movement of the eyebrows seemed to have disappeared from the forehead, while it was brought by the demons, seizing it by the hair; and it had become lighter from loss of blood, with the pupils fixed in a lifeless stare.
65. Her eyes remained fixed on the head as before, and her weary hand, leaving the cheeks, rested on her bosom. Inert like a corpse, she only sank to the ground14 under the weight of her breasts.
66. When she rose up after having swooned, her visage bore the imprint of silent mourning, with the listless eyes rolling simultaneously in different directions, and towards the sky; wondering what it all could be.
14. The poet overlooks the fact that she was already prostrate in a state of exhaustion, as described in verse 60.
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