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TRANSLATION
73
and their bodies united; when the gardens were covered as if with the glances of the Glory of Winter, who was unrestrained due to youth, due to the kunda flowers opened by the bees, mixing with the pollen of the rodhra flowers spread about by the wind as if it were the dust raised by the army of king Madana moving about to conquer the three worlds; which adorned the faces of all the directions ............, when (in the winter) the winds of the Himalayas were laden with heavy flakes of snow; when the hot-rayed sun resorted to the southern direction fearing the cold; when the travellers who arise from their earth-mattress every morning and whose stiffening (of the limbs) was removed by the chaff-fire remembered the warmth of the breasts of their beloveds; when the perishing lotus-tanks turned white as the lotuses faded on knowing that Mitra, their sole joy-giver, had become a traveller of the southern direction; when the fields were as if overspread with emeralds due to their being continuously covered with a parrot-like splendour of the blades of the rich corn; when the wanton women put on warm petticoats and appeared to have taken a vow of winter with their charming braids of hair dressed with rare perfumed oil, with their lips daubed with too much wine, and with their bodies turned tawny with the extremely soft Kaśmira saffron; (68) when (in winter) the Fishbannered one took up his bow, the agitated world became its servant at the mere glancing of the women whose plump breasts were adorned with garlands of the partially open priyangu buds, whose fleshiness were covered with fresh rodhra powder and whose hair was never without the garlands of kunda flowers intertwined with the maruvaka flowers; when the frost-laden wind produced trembling and yet the fire of separation of the women-in-separation did not gave any comfort; when the land which appeared to be coloured by kunkuma enchanted the minds of the people, being fragrant with the karkandhū trees which continuously put forth fruits which surpassed the brightness of the kimśukas by being profuse and over-ripe; when the sloppy soil in the small villages intoxicated the minds with the dark fresh sprouts of the tamāla, with the white mustard whose sprays were full of flowers as bright as molten gold, with the stems of kustumburu possessing the beauty of Kälindi's stream marked with balls of foam due to their having small fruits in between tops and covered with clusters of flowers possessing emerald-like green lustre, looking like leaves marked with haritāla mixed with dark juice; and which (land) was covered with the pleasant fields of vastuka as brilliant as the feathers of young parrots, as if by the mass of darkness left over by the sun; when the fire in the watershed is every evening resorted to by the travellers becoming mutually jealous of each other as a result of hearing the descriptions of various kings and countries,
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