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82
ŚRNGARAMANJARIKATHA
being multiplied by spring, looking as they were like the emerald studded golden needles to pierce the knots of pride of the haughty women; when in every reservoir the fire of Love spread under the guise of blooming red lotuses for disturbing the water-sports of those agonized by a separation from their beloveds; then the clusters of aśoka flowers, as charming as the breasts of the Hūņa ladies rubbed with kunkuma, filled with love, looked like berry-balls (76) made by the Sylvan-deity for the play of the child Madhu fascinated the minds; when the women with drowsy eyes attained some indescribable beauty while swinging, with their breasts tremulous with heavy breathing on account of exhaustion, with their ...... seen inbetween the hands moving up and down with the emerald-made ropes, with their iris constantly moving due to the fear of the quick movements of the swing, whose perspiration on the cheeks was dried by the wafting of the dress-borders and who though freed from the embraces of their lovers shrieked at intevals out of the fear of falling down; when spring matured, from every where the taunts of the proşita-bhartrkās were heard thus: 'Novel indeed is the Madhu «Spring, wine» that without being drunk or smelt intoxicates the mind of all the people', when heaps of flowers bloomed on the flowering trees appearing like the quivers constantly prepared by Spring for the Flower-arrowed One ready to conquer the whole world; when the nights became shorter out of jealously of the moon adorned with the moonlight; when the days abandoned contraction after the affliction of extreme cold was over; when in every house women worshipped Love as if fearing the continuous discharging of arrows; when the lotus-tanks bore some indescribable charm even when they thinned down like the separated ladies with their eyes in the form of the blue lotuses drooping due to the internal heat, with their armlets in the form of the lotus stalks bent down, with their brilliance screened by the lotus leaves, with their faces in the form of the pundarīkas losing colour and with their curls in the form of the kalhāras fluttering; when on all sides, in every forest leaves shot up like the arrows of Madana after piercing the hearts of the travellers; when aridity sleeped away together with the winter season, gradually the pleasure gardens bore a greenery, dark as the lustre of the emeralds, as if reflecting the clear sky; when the spring without cause exhilarates the world by the humming of bees here and the cooing of cuckoos there, with the mango-blossoms on one side and the swingsongs of the doe-eyed ones on the other, with the Malaya wind blowing on one hand and the blossoming of the flowery creepers on the other hand; when the wives in the form of directions pleasant after giving up the gloominess of separation when they had their long-desired union with Spring; when the trees wearing
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