intensely. The cuckoo is not forlorn and yet its cries are heartrending. How much more heart-rending ought to be the cries of her lone self? Even the touch of the cool water of the streams hurts her, for their coolness reminds her of the happiness of life together. These have been like spears that dig up an open sore in the heart. The cuckoo that calls without knowing the pangs of separation does hurt. The stream that swells with waters fresh does hurt more. But the farmer's tender maiden has her basket full of the cool petals of the kurukkatti and pittikai. The bees hum around her basket. She cries 'Won't you buy my flowers?' She does hurt indeed.22 |
The fragrant odours of the jasmine, and the gloriosa superba in splendid array, its red petals shining like lamps lit at sunset, and the friendly chatter of the pigeons in the courtyard, hurt yet more an already wounded heart. It is evening when every living being, and even inanimate Nature, seems to seek. repose. The mullai buds are compared to teeth in Cankam literature. In the dusk, the white buds stand clear in their candid radiance. They are supposed to gibe at the lovers, mocking at the hero that he has not kept his word, at the heroine that she has not merited the hero's return, at both for the loneliness which is theirs. They bring tears to the eyes of the heroine.23 Nor has the hero in his distant abode been unaware of the suffering that is the heroine's lot. He strives to complete his mission, for it would be unheroic to leave it incomplete, whatever be the suffering caused to himself and to his beloved. Once it is over, he urges the charioteer to hasten home where the heroine will be waiting, anxious to detect the faintest sound of the chariot bells. The chariot passes over the jungle sands that have lately been washed by the rains. He sees the silken vermilion coloured insects that the fresh rains bring. He sees the antelopes "with horns twisted in cast iron" with their mates refreshed by the waters that the rains have provided. He will not let the noise of his chariot disturb them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22Nar; 97, Cf. ibid., 321, 364; Kur; 21, 344. 23Kur; 126, 162; 186; cat's smile, ibid., 210, 240. |