Madhurāvijayam of Gaṅgādevī /151

D
 
MADHURAVIJAYAM
 
28. The stars looked as if they were beads of

perspiration appearing on the blue sky as a result of its
suffering from the burning heat of the sun during the

suffering from the burning heat of the sun during the
day.
 
56
 

 
29. Time was certainly the ploughman; the stars

were well-washed seeds of grain; the dark skies were

fields rendered muddy, wherein those seeds were sown

by him in order to raise the crop of moon-light. Such

was the fancy in the mind of all.
 

 
30. Fancy the horizon as a tree. Twilight was the

tender shoot to appear first. Darkness was the full-

grown leaf. The regions were its branches wherein one
saw the numberless buds of little stars.
 

saw the numberless buds of little stars.
 
31. Girls went to meet their lovers at rendezvous.

But friends forbade them by their very sighs; that were

made aware by the fragrance of breath in the darkness.
 

 
32. Lamps lit in houses, which were the children

of mother night were tended with great care which took

the form of oil-fed wicks. ('Snēha' means oil also, and

dasa' wick).
 

 
33. Lady Darkness decking her plait of hair with

flowers of stars waited for a short time for her lover,

the moon, smiling, as it were, with the blossoms of the

white lily.
 

 
34. Then a few rays of the moon, like glittering

ocean-waves, were to be noticed in the eastern horizon.
 

 
35. The eastern quarter, hiding the moon about

to rise, with her pale appearance, looked like a woman

big with child of whom she was about to be delivered.