CHAPTER LXXVII.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
39. He disported in the company of his lady love, as the swan sports over a bed of lotuses in a large lake; and indulged his frolics in his swinging cradles and pleasure ponds in the inner apartments.
40. They reveled in the gardens and groves, and in the bowers of creepers and flowering plants; and amused themselves in the woods and in walks under the sandalwood and a gulancha shades.
41. They sported by the rows of mandára trees, and beside the lines of plantain and kadalí plants; and regaled themselves wandering in the harem, and by the sides of the woods and lakes in the skirts of the town.
42. He roved afar in distant forests and deserts, and in jungles of Jám and Jám bira trees; they passed by paths bordered by Játí or jasmine plants, and, in short they took delight in everything in the company of one another.
43. The mutual attachment to one another was as delightsome to the people as the union of the raining sky with the cultivated ground; both tending to the welfare of mankind by the productiveness of the general weal. (This far-fetched simile and the mazy construction of the passage is incapable of a literal version).
44. They were both skilled in the arts of love and music, and were so united together by their mutual attachment, that the one was a counterpart of the other.
45. Being seated in each others heart, they were as two bodies with one soul; so that the learning of the sástras of the one, and the skill in painting and fine arts of the other, were orally communicated to and learnt by one another.
46. She from her childhood was trained in every branch of learning, and he learned the arts of dancing and playing on musical instruments, from the oral instructions of Chúdálá.
47. They learned and became learned in the respective arts and parts of one another; as the sun and moon being set in conjunction (amavasyá), impart to and partake of the qualities of each other.
48. Being mutually situated in the heart of one another, they became the one and the same person and both being in the same inclination and pursuit, were the more endeared to one another (as a river running to the milky ocean is assimilated to the ocean of milk, so all souls mixing with the supreme soul form one universal and only soul).
49. They were joined in one person, as the androgyne body of Umá and Siva on earth; and were united in one soul, as the different fragrances of flowers are mixed up with the common air. Their clearness of understanding and learning of the sástras led them both in the one and same way.
50. They were born on earth to perform their parts, like the God Vishnu and his consort Lakshmí; they were equally frank and sweet by their mutual affection, and were as informed as communicative of their learning to others.
51. They followed the course of the laws and customs, and attended to the affairs of the people; they delighted in the arts and sciences, and enjoyed their sweet pleasures also. They appeared as the two moons, shining with their beams.
52. They tasted all their sweet enjoyments of life, in the quiet and solitary recesses of their private apartments, as a couple of giddy swans sporting merrily in the lake of the azure sky.