10. Nowadays, Oh Bráhman! he has become by a sad reverse of my fortune, as lean and pale as the withering lotus under the dews.
11. He has no taste for his food, nor can he walk from one room to another, but remains ever silent and slow brooding over his inward grief and melancholy.
12. In my great anxiety about him, O chief of sages, I have been, with my family and dependants, deprived of the gist of our bodies, and become as empty clouds of autumn.
13. Can my boy, so young as he is, and thus subjected to distemper, be fit to fight at all, and again with those marauders who rove about at nights.
14. Oh thou high-minded sage! it is one’s affection for his son that affords him far greater pleasure than his possession of a kingdom, or his connection with beauteous females, or even his relish for the juice of nectar.
15. It is from paternal affection that good people (engage to) perform the hardest duties and austerities of religion, and any thing which is painfull in the three worlds.
16. Men are even prepared under certain circumstances to sacrifice their own lives, riches and wives; but they can never sacrifice their children: this is the nature with all living beings.
17. The Rákshasas are very cruel in their actions and fight deceitful warfares: so that Ráma should fight them, is an idea which is very painful to me.
18. I that have a desire to live, cannot dare to live for a moment in separation from Ráma; therefore thou shouldst not take him away (from me).
19. I have O Kausika! passed nine thousand rains in my lifetime, ere these four boys were born to me after much austerity.