61-63] PADUMĀWATI. 31 61. Sporting went they forth to the Mānasarādaka lake, and stood upon its bank. As they looked at it frolicked they, and cried to Padmavati, "My Princess, consider in thine heart, but a few days more have we to wait in our fathers' homes. If thou must sport, sport thou to-day, for thou can'st but sport while thou art a maiden in thy father's kingdom. On the morrow must we all depart to our husbands' dwellings, then where will we be, and where the bank of this fair lake? Where will be our liberty of going and coming at our own sweet will, and where shall we meet together and sport? The husband's mother and sister will kill us with their (jealous) speeches, and his stern father will not let us slip out of doors. "I know that my Love will be beloved and over all, but what can he do against them ? Keep he us in bliss or in sorrow, still we must live with him.' 62. Frolicking do they meet, and mount the swing, and happily do the artless damsels rock themselves therein. 'Swing away while thou art in thy parent's house; for, once married, our Lords will no longer let us swing. He will (jealously) guard us in our father-in-law's house, (and put us) where we shall not e'en be able to wish for our parents' homes. Where will then be this sunshine, and where this shade? We shall ever remain indoors, and without our young friends. Some day he will consider and ask questions (of us) and blame us (for to-day's sport): what answer, what release, shall we obtain ? How often will our mothers-in-law and our sisters-in-law con- tract their brows, and we shall remain shrivelled up, with both hands humbly joined ? Where again shall we come to frolic thus? In our husbands' houses shall we have sorrow to bear till our deaths.
- How seldom shall we return to our parents' homes. How seldom will
there be this sport in our husbands' houses. Each of us will be herself to herself, as a bird fallen into a fowler's basket.' 63. To the shore of the lake came the Padmini; and she untied her head-knot, and let her hair fall o'er her face.' 'Twas as though black serpents concealed and inhaled her moonface and the Princess's sandal-fragrant limbs. 'Twas as it were a black cloud which descended and o'ershadowed the world, or like the demon of eclipse coming to the moon for refuge. It was as though the sun were obscured by day, and the moon had taken the stars and appeared, by night. The very partridges turned his eyes upon her face in error, for he thought that it was the moon shining through a fleece of clouds. Her teeth were the summer lightning, and her voice the cuckoo, her brows were the rainbow shining in the sky. Her eyes, two khañjant birds, sported in the air, and bees imbibed the nectar of her orange-breasts. The lake was troubled at her beauty, and his heart surged up (crying), “May I but attain to touch her feet;' and with this pretext he advanced (upon the shore) his waves. 1 When a woman bathes, she undoes her hair and lets it fall over her face, as she cleans it (her hair). 2 The night is her black hair; the moon her face; and the stars her companions. 8 Fabled to be enamoured of the moon and always gazing at it.
- Motacilla alba, a kind of wagtail, whose quick motion is often compared to the
glances of a damsel's eye.
