LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
cheek is as the blossom of the Turi tree ; your
chin as the angle of an adze, with its handle;
your neck bends like the tendril of a weeper;
your wide bosom is becoming; your breasts are
as the ivory coco-nut, leaving nothing to desire.
The breasts of my princess are like two young coco
nuts, bound in a vest of red, full and smooth,
intoxicating to madness. Her shoulders are polished
and slender; her arms like an unstrung
bow; her waist as if it would break by an effort.
The tips of her fingers are as thorns, her nails long
and becoming ; her legs are shaped as the flower
of the pudac ; the soles of her feet are arched.
My fair one looks as if she would perish at the
breath of love. Were all her perfections to be
enumerated, how little room, how much to write.
A year’s search will not produce her equal.”
Of romances, founded on Hindu story or mythology*
I have already said a few words in speaking
of the obsolete and recondite language. Translations
of various merit or demerit of the Brata-
yuda and Ramayana exist in modern Javanese ;
and from the latter, in particular, a great many
compositions are fabricated, detailing the various
adventures of Rama. One advantage the Javanese
epitomes have over the Sanskrit originals, they
are free from their tiresome prolixity ; and I have
no doubt that a spirited version of the Brata-yuda
would give less dissatisfaction to the European
reader, than the most skilful one of the Indian
original. The following is an example .
“ The charge of the King of Awangga was as a
torrent. The .forces of the Pandus, advancing
with clattering pace, met Karna. Their chiefs attempted
to arrest his career, but their close ranks
were trode down, were fiercely trampled upon.
His chariot rushed on, with a hollow noise, like
the flight of Garuda. His arrows flew in every
direction, interrupted only for a moment by the
thunderbolts he discharged ; his arrows, which fell
on the foe thicker than a shower of rain, poured on
without interruption. The Pandus, crushed, overwhelmed,
could not sustain themselves. The rage
of Karna was unbounded. The hundred Pandus
enraged, again rallied and charged, but again fled,
broken, trod down, scattered, as if overwhelmed
by a mountain flood ; while the Kurawa advanced
with shouts like the roar of a torrent, or like that
of the approaching storm.”
All the translations which I have seen of the
Ramayana make it appear a more feeble and less
interesting production than the Brata-yuda. The
following is afavourable specimen ; it describes Ra-
wana, the giant of Ceylon, going forth to encounter
Rama, after the death of his sons: