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.298
VAJJĀLAGGAM
[193
193) Oh foolish, lordly elephant, do not waste away because of your separation from your female. In this worldly existence none ever gets continuous happiness (continuous happiness never falls to the lot of any body in this world).
194) For the leader of the elephant-herd, on the Vindhya mountain, unnerved and agitated by separation from his mate and young ones, the self-same juicy leaves of the sallakī creepers become odious like a mouthful (draught) of poison.
195) As the elephant, though tormented by acute hunger, remembered the happiness which he had formerly enjoyed in the company of his beloved mate, the juicy (fresh) bunch of lotusstalks remained (uneaten) just on the tip of his trunk.
196) The leader of the herd, while recollecting his prolonged dalliance (with his mate) (in the past), gave out (exhaled) such a (powerful and warm) sigh, that the bunch of green grass held on the tip of the trunk (became at once completely dried up and) quickly caught fire.
197) Oh elephant-lord, though consumed by the fire of separation (from your mate), do not smash and raze to the ground the entire grove (of trees) (i.e. the entire forest-region). For even though you may uproot the Vindhya mountain, your plight due to separation will continue to remain just as it is.
198) The elephant when separated from his beloved mate looks for her, scanning all the places round about him, from the herd to the dense forest, from the dense forest to the water-lake from the water-lake to the mountain-top and from the mountaintop to the earth below.
199) Even if the elephant, while remembering how he (formerly) feasted upon fresh and juicy bunches of sallaki creepers (sallaki sprouts), offered to him by his mate with her trunk, does not die (or may not die), should he not therefore be even emaciated (at their painful memories) ?
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