17. His father departed to the next world, leaving him a lad of sixteen years in age; and yet he was able at that tender age to govern his realm, by defeating his adversaries on all sides.
18. He conquered all other provinces of the country by means of the resources of his empire; and he remained free from all apprehension by ruling his subjects with justice and keeping them in peace.
19. He brightened all sides by his intelligence and the wisdom of his ministers, till in the course of years he came to his youth, as in the gaudy spring of the year.
20. It was the vernal season, and he beheld the blooming flowers glistening brightly under the bright moon-beams; and he saw the budding blossoms, hanging down the arbours in the inner apartments.
21. The door ways of the bowers were overhung with twining branches, decorated with florets scattering their fragrant dust like the hoary powder of camphor; and the rows of the guluncha flowers wafted their odours all around.
22. There was the loud hum of bees, buzzing with their mates upon the flowery bushes; and the gentle zephyrs were wafting the sweet scent amidst the cooling showers of moonbeams.
23. He saw the banks decorated with the kadalí shrubbery glistening with their gemming blossoms under the sable shade of kadalí (plantain) leaves; which excited his yearning after the dear one that was seated in his heart.
24. Giddy with the intoxication of the honey draughts of fragrant flowers, his mind was fixed on his beloved object, and did not depart from it, as the spring is unwilling to quit the flowery garden (so says Hapiz,—no pleasant sight is gladsome to the mind without the face of the fair possessor of the heart: see Sir Wm. Jones' version of it).
25. When shall I in this swinging cradles of my pleasure garden, and when will I in my sports in this lake of lotuses, play with my love-smitten maid with her budding breasts resembling the two unblown blossoms of golden lotuses?
26. When shall I embrace my beloved one to my bosom on my bed daubed with the dust of powdered frankincense, and when shall we on cradles of lotus stalks, like a pair of bees sucking the honey from flower cups?