Page:The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás.djvu/419

 THE FOREST. 359 Chaupái. When they had left this wood, they went on their way, Ráma and his brother, two lions among men, of immeasurable strength. The Lord, like a bereaved lover, kept making lamentation and turning his discourse to many topics : "Observe, Lakshman, the beauty of the forest; whose heart is not moved to see it? The birds and deer, all accompanied by their mates, seem to laugh and jeer at me. When the deer see me and would scamper away, the does cry; 'Have no fear, enjoy yourselves, for you are genuine deer, and it is only a golden deer that these people have come to look for.' The female elephants, as they take aside their lords, seem to be giving me this caution; The scriptures, however well studied, must be read over and over again ; a king, however well served, is never to be depended upon; and a woman like the scriptures and the king, though you cherish her in your bosom, is never thoroughly mastered.' See, brother, how beautiful the spring is; yet to me without my beloved it is frightful. Dohá 32. Love, finding me tortured by separation, powerless and absolutely alone, has made a raid upon me with the bees and birds of the forest. His spy has seen me with only my brother and on his report the amorous god has, as it were, resolutely encamped against me with his army. Chaupái. The huge trees and tangled creepers are as it were the diverse pavilions that he has spread; the plantains and stately palms his pennons and standards, that none but the stoutest could see without amazement; the many kinds of different flowering shrubs are his warriors, arrayed in all their various kinds of panoply; the magnificent forest-trees, that stand here and there, are the separate encampments of warrior chiefs; the murmuring cuckoos are his infuriated elephants, and the herons his bulls, camels and mules; the peacocks, chakors and parrots are his war horses, the pigeons and swans his Arab steeds; the partridges and quails his foot soldiers; but there is no describing the whole of Love's host. The mountains and rocks are his chariots, the waterfalls his kettle- drums, the chátaks the bards that sing his praises, the garrulous bees are his trumpets and clarions, and the three kinds of wind his scouts. complete in all its four branches, he goes about and exhorts every one. Lakshman, they who can see Love's battle-array and stand firm, they are men With an army