Sundara Kanda 7

Rávan’s Palace.

1 He passed within the walls and gazed

On gems and gold that round him blazed,

And many a latticed window bright

With turkis and with lazulite.

Through porch and ante-rooms he passed

Each richer, fairer than the last;

And spacious halls where lances lay,

And bows and shells, in fair array:

A glorious house that matched in show

All Paradise displayed below.

Upon the polished floor were spread

Fresh buds and blossoms white and red,

And women shone, a lovely crowd,

As lightning flashes through a cloud:

A palace splendid as the sky

Which moon and planets glorify:

Like earth whose towering hills unfold

Their zones and streaks of glittering gold;

Where waving on the mountain brows

The tall trees bend their laden boughs,

And every bough and tender spray

With a bright load of bloom is gay,

And every flower the breeze has bent

Fills all the region with its scent.

Near the tall palace pale of hue

Shone lovely lakes where lilies blew,

And lotuses with flower and bud

Gleamed on the bosom of the flood.

There shone with gems that flashed afar

The marvel of the Flower-named car,

Mid wondrous dwellings still confessed

Supreme and nobler than the rest.

Thereon with wondrous art designed

Were turkis birds of varied kind.

And many a sculptured serpent rolled

His twisted coil in burnished gold.

And steeds were there of noblest form

With flying feet as fleet as storm:

And elephants with deftest skill

Stood sculptured by a silver rill,

Each bearing on his trunk a wreath

Of lilies from the flood beneath.

There Lakshmí, beauty’s heavenly queen,

Wrought by the artist’s skill, was seen

Beside a flower-clad pool to stand

Holding a lotus in her hand.