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II, 6.
THE RETURN OF KANDAKA.
he should still drive me away, let me not depart from the feet of my master; 454
My heart is bound to thee, as the heat is (bound up') in the boiling water; I cannot return without thee to my country; to return and leave the prince thus, in the midst of the solitude of the desert, 455
Then should I be like Sumantas (Sumantra), who left and forsook Râma; and now if I return alone to the palace, what words can I address to the king? .456
How can I reply to the reproaches of all the dwellers in the palace with suitable words? Therefore let the prince rather tell me, how I may truly* describe, 457
And with what device, the disfigured body, and the merit-seeking condition of the hermit! I am full of fear and alarm, my tongue can utter no words; 458
Tell me then what words to speak; but who is there in the empire will believe me? If I say that the moon's rays are scorching, there are men, perhaps, who may believe me; 459
'But they will not believe that the prince, in his conduct, will act without piety; (for) the prince's heart is sincere and refined; always actuated with pity and love to men. 460
To be deeply affected with love, and yet to i Or, my heart is bound to thee, or cherishes thee, as the fire embraces the vessel set over it.
. I have here inverted the order of the lines, to bring out the sense.
8 Sumantra, the minister and charioteer of Dasaratha (Rama. yana II, 14, 30). .
• The order of these lines is again inverted, as they are complicated in the original. The word 'hu,' which I have translated 'truly,' may mean . dumbly,' or, unfeelingly.'
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