64. Whatever fair, lovely, charming and sweet and pleasant things, I come to see and feel, I am filled with sorrow at their sight, and my eyes are suffused in tears.
65. My eyes steam with tears, from the heat of my inward bosom; and they trickle upon and fall down my eyelids, like dew drops on lotus leaves.
66. Swinging with my playmates, on the pendant boughs of plantain trees, in our pleasure gardens; I think of the burning grief in my heart, and burst out in tears, by covering my face with my hands (for fear of being detected in my love).
67. I look at our bowers of cooling plantain leaves, and strewn over with snows all over the ground; but fearing them as bushes of thorny brambles, I fly from them far away.
68. I see the blooming lotus of the lake, and the fond crane fondling with its stalk like arm, and then begin to contemn my youthful bloom.
69. I weep at seeing whatever is handsome, and keep quiet at what is moderate; I delight in whatsoever beseems to be ugly, and I am happy in my utter insensibility of every thing.
70. I have seen the fair flowers of spring, and the hoary-frost of winter; and thought them all to be but heaps of the ashes of lovelorn dames, burnt down by the flame of love, and scattered by the relentless winds on all sides.
71. I have made me beds of the blue leaves of lotuses and other plants, and covered me with chaplets of snow white flowers; but found them to turn pale and dry by their contact with my body. So pity me, that my youthful days have all gone in vain.
CHAPTER LXV.
Life and Conduct of the Etherial Nymph.
Argument:—How nymph has come to approach before Vasishtha, her statement of facts of her life.