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blue utbe
TRANSLATION
175 493. I mounted it and quickly set it galloping on the horse
track; then when I touched it with the whip for a
trial of speed 494. . . . at breakneck pace that horse bore me into the
forest quickly drawing me away from my troops. 495. Alone I went there, fearless in heart, into the terrible
forest with its various trees and lianas and thickets,
full of hordes of various wild beasts. 496. Having by then penetrated far into the forest the horse
was exhausted by thirst and so was I ; accordingly
I set about searching for water. 497. Then I saw an extensive lake, its surface covered with
lotuses and water-lilies and frequented by various kinds
of water creatures and many birds. 498. which was always a-flower—with splendid red utpalas in
the twilight, with kumudas in the moonlight and with
blue utpalas in the ... 499. It resounds as it were with the humming of bees and
chants with the voices of swans and in the wind dances
as it were with hands that are the leaves of lotuses. 500. Having watered my horse in the lake and tied it to the
root of a banyan tree by its brink I went down to it
to bathe. 501. I drank of its waters pure like the hearts of good men,
cool like the discourses of reverent monks and salutary
like the Jaina doctrine. 502. I bathed and as with my whole body refreshed I emerged
from the water, I saw a very lovely Nāga princess. 503. And seeing that girl with her delicate hands and feet
like the royal abode of the monarch whose emblem
is the dolphin I thought to myself : 504. Neither in a dream nor in a sculpture nor in a painting
nor in many tales did I see or hear of another woman
so beautiful 505. Was this lovely and delicate woman endowed with all
qualities and fashioned with all reverence made by the creator from the quintessence of everything ?
