Where the palaces are worthy of comparison to you in these various aspects:you possess lightning, they have lovely women; you have a rainbow, they arefurnished with pictures; they have music provided by resounding drums, youproduce deep, gentle rumbling; you have water within, they have floors madeof gemstones; you are lofty, their rooftops touch the sky;
Where there are decorative lotuses in the hands of the young wives; freshjasmine woven into their hair; where the beauty of their faces is made whiterby the pollen of lodhra flowers; in the thick locks on their crowns are freshkurubaka flowers; on their ears charming shirisa flowers; and on the partingof their hair, nipa flowers that bloom on your arrival;
Where the trees, humming with intoxicated bees, are always in flower; the lilypools, having rows of wild geese as waistbands, always produce lotuses;where the tails of the tame peacocks, their necks upstretched to cry out, arealways resplendent; and where the evenings are perpetually moonlit andpleasant, and darkness has been banished;
Where the tears of the lords of wealth are of utmost joy, having no othercause, there being no suffering other than that caused by the flower-arrowedgod which is to be assuaged by union with the desired one; where there isseparation other than that arising from lovers’ quarrels; and where there isindeed no age other than youth;
Where yakshas, having assembled on the upper terraces of the palace, made ofcrystal, accompanied by their excellent womenfolk, enjoy ratiphalam wineproduced by a wish-fulfilling tree, while drums whose sound resembles yourdeep thunder are beaten softly;
Where the girls fanned by breezes cooled by the waters of the Mandakiniriver, the heat dispelled by the shade of the mandara trees that grow on itsbanks, are urges by the gods to play with jewels hidden by burying them withclenched fists in the golden sands and which are to be searched for;
Where the handfuls of powder flung by those red-lipped women bewilderedby shame when their lovers passionately pull away their linen garments, theties of which have been loosened and undone by restless hands, although theyreach the long-rayed jewel-lamps, they fail to extinguish them;
Where ragged clouds, like yourself, brought to the upper stories of the palacesby the leader of the wind, having committed the misdeed of sheddingraindrops on a painting, cleverly imitating puffs of smoke, flee immediatelyby way of the lattices as if filled with dread;
Where at night the moonstones, hanging from a web of threads and sheddingfull drops of water under the influence of moonbeams bright since the removalof your obstruction, dispel the physical langour after sexual enjoyment on thepart of the women who are freed from the embraces of their lovers’ arms;
Where lovers, with inexhaustible treasure their residences, together with thekinnaras who sing with sweet voices of the glory of the lord of wealth,accompanied by celestial courtesans, engage in conversation and enjoyeveryday the outer grove known as Vaibhraja;
Where at sunrise the route taken by women the previous night is indicated bymandara flowers with torn petals that were shaken from their hair by themovement of their walking, by the golden lotuses that slipped from behindtheir ears, and by necklaces of strings of pearls the threads of which brokeupon their breasts;
Where a single wish-fulfilling tree produces every adornment for women:coloured garments, wine which is suitable for introducing an amorousplayfulness to the eyes, flowers together with buds which are distinctiveamong ornaments, and red lac dye suitable for application to their lotus-likefeet;
Where horses, as dark as leaves, rival the steeds of the sun; where elephants,as tall as mountains, pour forth showers, like you, from the pores of theirtemples; and where the foremost warriors stood in battle against the ten-facedone, the splendour of their ornmanets surpassed by the scars of the woundsfrom Candrahasa;
Where the god of love does not generally carry his bow strung with bees,knowing that the god who is the friend of the lord of wealth dwells there inperson: his task is accomplished by the amorous play of talented womenwhose glances are cast by means of curved eyebrows and which are not invain among the objects of their desire.
There, to the north of the residence of the lord of wealth, our home is to berecognised from afar by an arched portal as lovely as a rainbow, near which ayoung mandara tree, caused to bow down by bunches of flowers that may betouched by the hand, is cherished by my beloved like an adopted son.
And within is a pool the steps of which are studded with emerald stone, filledwith flowering golden lotuses whose stalks are of smooth chrysoberyl.
On itswaters the geese that have take up residence there do not think of Lake Manasclose at hand, and are free from sorrow, having seen you.
On its bank there is a pleasure hill whose summit is studded with finesapphires, beautiful to behold with a hedge of golden plantain trees.
Havingseen you,
O friend, with flashing lightning, near at hand,
I recall that mountainwith a despondent mind, thinking, ‘It is enjoyed by my spouse’.
Here is a red ashoka with trembling buds and a charming kesara near a hedgeof kurubaka and a bower of madhavi.
One desires (as I do) the touch of yourfriend’s left foot.
The other longs for a mouthful of wine from her, having asits pretext a craving.
And between these is a golden perch with a crystal base, studded at its footwith gems that shine like half-grown bamboo, on which rests your friend theblue-necked one, who, at the day’s end, is caused to dance by my belovedwith claps of her hands, made pleasant by the jingling of her bracelets.
Having seen the figures of Shanka and Padma painted near the door, bythese signs preserved in yout heart,
O noble one, you may distinguish theresidence, now reduced in beauty because of my absence.
Indeed, at thesetting of the sun, even the lotus does not display its own splendour.
Having shrunk at once to the size of a small elephant for the sake of a swiftdescent, resting on the pleasure mountain with lovely peaks that I havementioned, please cast your gaze in the form of a flickering bolt of faintlightning upon the interior of the house, like the glow of a swarm of fire-flies.
