महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

39] Act II, Daṇḍakā Revisited — Translation [—ii. 28³
Godāvarī reflecting the glory of its sombre trees and the birds
filling the skies with their incessant warblings—such is this
charming woodland [scenery]. 25
And even here is that Pañchavaṭī every spot in which can bear witness,
in the course of our long residence, to those manifold expressions of
unreserved endearments, and where my dear wife’s dear friend, Vāsantī,
[has her abode]. What then is this that has to-day befallen this Rāma?
For now—
Like the virulent essence of some poison [dormant hitherto but
now] after such a long time diffusing itself all over and causing
spasms [of acute pain]--like the splinter of an arrow [imbedded
in flesh and smarting now] as when, from some cause or other,
it is violently shaken—like a [festering] ulcer overgrown with
flesh [on the outside but] bursting open in the very vitals of the
heart—even so my [long and so to say] solidified grief [now]
unmans me as would a recent [grief]. 26
Still, these friends of old—these landscapes here—I will see. Looking [more]
closely. Ha! How changed [now] is the aspect of this region!—
Where once was the stream [itself], there now are the sands of
the rivers; of the sprouting trees (kshiti-ruh) the denseness and
the sparseness have exchanged places:¹ This forest, seen after
[such] a long time, seems to me like another [forest]—only the
unaltered position of the mountains confirms the idea that it is
the same! 27
Alas! Though trying to avoid it, my attachment to Pañchavaṭī forcibly
draws me, as it were, towards it. With pathos—
[That Pañchavaṭī] wherein, in that [blissful] manner, those days
with her I passed, and later, in our home, with long talks about
which [Pañchavaṭī] we constantly whiled away our time: alone,
now, after being the cause of the loss of his dear [wife], how
should Rāma, sinful as he is, visit that very same Pañchavaṭī, or
how pass on regardless of it? 28
Śambūka, entering—Victory unto Your Majesty! The exalted Agastya
hearing from me of your presence [here], sends this word unto you:—
‘Having in readiness all the auspicious preparations for your welcome,
the kindly Lopāmudrā awaits you, as do also all the sages [in our
neighbourhood]. Come then: honour us [with your visit]. With your
swift Pushpaka you can thereafter return to your country in time for the
horse-sacrifice.’
¹ I. e. where the trees were dense, now they are sparse, and vice versa.