Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/552

 maśekhara, this fever produced by the arrows of love cannot be alleviated. But I do not dare to say this, and I do not find a refuge in any one; indeed I know only of one expedient for obtaining her. I will go to the temple of Gaurí, where I saw my beloved, and where she tore out my heart with the arrows of her sidelong glances, and carried it away. There Śiva, who is united with the daughter of the king of mountains, will, when propitiated with penance, shew me how to become united with my beloved." When the prince had said this, he was preparing to rise up, and then Manoháriká, being much pleased, shewed herself; and Samyataka, delighted, said to that prince, " My friend, you are in luck; your desire is accomplished. Look ! here is that beloved's female attendant come to you. I beheld her at the side of the princess in the hermitage of the goddess Ambiká." Then the prince, beholding the friend of his beloved, was in a strange state, a state full of the bursting forth of joy, astonishment, and longing. And when she came near him, a rain of nectar to his eyes, he made her sit by his side, and asked her about the health of his beloved. Then she gave him this answer, " No doubt my friend will be well enough, when you become her husband; but at present she is afflicted. For ever since she saw you, and you robbed her of her heart, she has been despondent, and neither hears nor sees. The maiden has left off her necklace, and wears a chain of lotus-fibres; and has abandoned her couch, and rolls on a bed of lotus-leaves. Best of conquerors, I tell you, her limbs, now white with the sandal-wood juice which is drying up with their heat, seem laughingly* to say, ' That very maiden, who formerly was too bashful to endure the mention of a lover †, is now reduced to this sad condition by being separated from her dear one.' And she sends you this message." Having said so much, Manoháriká recited the two verses which Padmávatí had put into her mouth. When Muktáphalaketu heard all that, his pain departed, and he joyfully welcomed Manohárika, and said to her, " This my mind has been irrigated by your speech, as by nectar, and is refreshed; and I have recovered my spirits, and got rid of my languor: my good deeds in a former life have to-day borne fruit, in that that daughter of the Gandharva king is so well-disposed towards me. But, though I might possibly be able to endure the agony of separation, how could that lady, whose body is as delicate as a śirísha-flower, endure it? So I will go to that very hermitage of Gaurí; and do you bring your friend there, in order that we may meet at once.