Do not rebuke the storm, my friend. Let ceaseless rain a hundred years endure, The lightning quiver, and the thunder peal; For what I deemed impossible is sure: Her dear-loved arms about my neck I feel. 48
He only knows what riches are, Whose love comes to him from afar, Whose arms that dearest form enfold, While yet with rain 't is wet and cold. 49
The masonry is shaken; and so old The awning, that 't will not much longer hold. Heavy with water is the painted wall, From which dissolving bits of mortar fall. 50
[_He looks up._] The rainbow! See, my belovèd, see!
See how they yawn, the cloudy jaws of heaven, As by a tongue, by forkèd lightning riven; And to the sky great Indra's fiery bow In lieu of high-uplifted arms is given. 51
Come, let us seek a shelter. [_He rises and walks about._]
On palm-trees shrill, On thickets still, On boulders dashing, On waters splashing, Like a lute that, smitten, sings, The rainy music rings. 52
[Footnote 60: In Indian love poetry, the rainy season is the time when lovers most ardently long to be united.]
[Footnote 61: In allusion to Vishnu's name, Krishna, "black."]
[Footnote 63: The goddess of wealth and beauty, usually represented with a lotus.]
[Footnote 64: Kama's (Cupid's) arrows are flowers.]
[Footnote 65: Throughout this scene, Vasantasena's verses are in Sanskrit. Compare note 1 on page 73.]
[Footnote 66: The cry of the heron resembles the Sanskrit word for "rain." Indian love-poetry often paints the sorrow, even unto death, of her whose beloved does not return before the rainy season.]
[Footnote 67: The elephant of Indra. Indra is the god of the thunderstorm.]
Isn't my mistress awake yet? Well, I must go in and wake her. [_She walks about. Vasantasena appears, dressed, but still asleep. The maid discovers her._] It is time to get up, mistress. The morning is here.
_Vasantasena._ [_Awakening._] What! is the night over? is it morning?
_Maid._ For us it is morning. But for my mistress it appears to be night still.
_Vasantasena._ But girl, where is your gambler?
_Maid._ Mistress, after giving Vardhamanaka his orders, Charudatta went to the old garden Pushpakaranda.
_Maid._ To have the bullock-cart ready before daylight; for, he said, Vasantasena was to come--