महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

83] Act VI, Princes Recognized — Translation [—vi. 5¹¹ These countless aerial cars are flying [in all directions], their flags and chowries all singed and besmirched; while, upon the fringes of their [silken] pennons, these flames are producing, for a moment, the appearance of a tint of saffron! 4 Wonderful! It is already gaining ground everywhere—this puissant (bhagavān) fire from which are issuing sparks that fly crackling with the noise of the splinters of some wrathful thunderbolt—[fire] which is terrific in the [seething] mass of its tall and towering flames coursing rapidly! And fierce is its heat on every side. I shall, therefore, screen my dear [wife] with my body and withdraw to a [safe] distance. Does so. Female Sprite—Oh, joy that this touch of my dear Lord's body, cool like some stainless pearl, and smooth and soft and tender,—as I in ecstasy had gently closed my rolling eyes—[this touch] has quite banished all my anguish! Male Sprite—Why, what have I done here? Or rather— Though doing nothing, by the very joy [of being together] we chase away all sorrow: Indeed it is a treasure indescribable when some one has some one to love.¹ 5 Female Sprite—How now? Why is the expanse of the sky being strewn over ² with these clouds, decked with the fitful and incessant flashings of the sportive streaks of lightning, and sable like the throat of a youthful peacock? Male Sprite—Why, this must certainly be the prowess of the Vāruṇa- missiles employed by Prince Lava. Lo! The showers of water descending one after another in thousands of streams have quite quenched the Fiery missile! Female Sprite—I am glad, I am glad. Male Sprite—But lo! Everything in excess is a fault; for now are all beings whatsoever thrown into [a fit of] trembling, quite overwhelmed by this impenetrable darkness which is rendered intense by the deep rumbling clouds as they are tossed up by the series of winds ³ that portend Dissolution—[beings] who seem as if weltering in the caverned jaws (kaṇṭha) of the dreaded [God of] Death, [jaws] wide gaping to swallow the universe in one morsel—or [they seem] as if lost in the belly of the Cosmic Spirit (Nārāyaṇa) when, at the end of the Yugas, all gates of egress being closed, He falls into His yogic sleep! Bravo, Prince Chandraketu, bravo! Most appositely hast thou sent forth the Wind-missile. For now— ¹ This verse = ii. 19, where it is spoken by were above the clouds. Rāma. In the mouth of an inferior ³ There are forty-nine of these winds that character it loses its dignity. come into activity at a Dissolution of the ² 'Strewn over' and not 'overcast', for they universe.