काव्यप्रकाश (आचार्य मम्मट - सम्पूर्ण १० उल्लास सटीक)

300 KĀVYAPRAKĀŚA
श्रान्तप्रतीतयो यथा व्यवहरन्ति तद्वन्मधुरादिव्यञ्जकसुकुमारादि-
वर्णानां मधुरादिव्यवहारप्रवृत्तेरमधुरादिरसाङ्गानां वर्णानां
सौकुमार्यादिमात्रेण माधुर्यादि मधुरादिरसोपकरणानां तेषामसौ-
कुमार्यादिरमाधुर्यादि रसपर्यन्तविश्रान्तप्रतीतिबन्ध्या व्यवहरन्ति ।
अत एव माधुर्यादयो रसधर्माः समुचितैर्वर्णैर्व्यज्यन्ते न तु
वर्णमात्राश्रयाः । यथैषां व्यञ्जकत्वम् तथोदाहरिष्यते ॥६६॥
the analogy of the former case, that this other man also
must be brave ;—and thus, even a really brave man comes
to be believed to be not brave on the ground of the smallness
of his body ; and such beliefs are very common ;—in the
same manner people (like Vāmana and others) have come
to speak (a) of the soft—sounding letters as ‘sweet’,
though in reality they are only suggestive of sweetness ;—
and they come to speak of such passion and its accessories
as are not really ‘sweet’, as ‘sweet’, simply by reason of
the softness of the letters (expressing them) ; in the same
manner, they also speak of the really ‘sweet’ passions
and accessories as ‘not sweet’, when they are expressed
in such words as are not soft-sounding ;—and in all
this, they do not take into account the Passion at all (attri-
buting as they do, the sweetness to the letters).
It is in view of all this divergent usage that it has been
asserted (in the text) that sweetness and other excellences
are properties really belonging to the Passion, and what
the properly selected letters do is only to render such
qualities perceptible ; and those qualities do not subsist
in the letters entirely. In what manner the letters serve
to manifest the qualities is going to be shown by means of
examples. 66.