And the elephant said: Pippala, as I gazed at her, I almost shrank
before her tranquil eyes, half believing she could see me, so utterly
had she crushed me by her unanswerable words. And yet, the less I
could reply, the more intense became my admiration of herself, and the
stronger my unwillingness to obey her, and go away and leave her. And
as if her beauty was not enough, her very virtue came to reinforce it,
making her attraction a hundred times more powerful than ever. O
pippala, what is this mystery of love, and who is there who can sound
it? For what was I doing, but endeavouring to persuade her? and yet,
had she been persuaded, I should actually have grieved at my success;
as I actually rejoiced at her refusal, loving her the better, the less
she could be persuaded to love me. And I exclaimed, as if in defiance
of despair: No matter, O thou incomparable beauty, what I was, for I am
changed, and by thee, in the twinkling of an eye. And what does it
matter what they say in the bazaar, for the world is but a straw to me,
in comparison with thee? See, I cannot live without thee, and I will
carry thee away, to a distance from the world, and be to thee
infinitely more than a thousand husbands such as thine. For he
neglected thee, and left thee to thyself, not valuing his pearl. But I
will be thy other self; see, thou art blind, but I will be thy eyes,
and by means of me, thou shall utterly forget thy want of sight. And
if thou wilt, I will take thee clean away, turning my back upon my
kingdom and the world, like yonder necklace which I have left for thy
sake lying unregarded in the grass, and asking of thee in return
nothing but thyself. Dost thou not know, what fate awaits thee here?
Canst thou endure to live, deserted by thy husband, who is either dead
or gone, the object of the scorn and derision and hard usage of the
world, a very target for the arrows of contempt?[14] What then will
thou resemble but a blue delicious lotus, trampled in the mire of a
city street by the foot of every passer-by; a lotus, whose appropriate
position is either the pool in the silence of the forest, or the head
of a king? But come with me, O lotus, and thou shall gain at one
stroke both the forest and the king. For here am I, a king, and beside
us is the forest, stretching like the ocean to the south, whose farther
shore no hunter ever sees. And far away within it, I will build thee a
marble palace that shall laugh at even Alaká, set like a pearl in the
middle of an emerald of gardens, full of pools of golden lotuses, whose
roots are nibbled by a multitude of silver swans. And there by day
thou shall wander led by me, or lie and dream, fanned by breezes heavy
with the sandal straight from Malaya, on marble slabs cooled by the
spray tossed from the crystal tanks by waterfalls whose music shall
pour sleep into thy ear, leaving thee wakeful at midnight to listen and
tremble as I guide thee along the palace-top at the cry of the wild
animals roaming at a distance in the wood, till at last thou fall to
dreaming in my arms, lulled by the slow and melancholy weeping of the
moonstones oozing as they swing to and fro slowly in the moonlight, as
if keeping time to the silent dance of their own long shadows on the
floor. And what will it matter to thee or me what they say in the
bazaar, living together like Siddhas in the moon, to whom this babble
of busybodies in the cities of this despicable earth sounds like the
recollection of the murmur of a far-off ocean in the dream of a
half-remembered birth. And all the while I will be thy servant and the
eyes of thee, and my voice shall paint to thee pictures of the world
that shall surround thee, and be thy one interpreter, till learning its
language, thy soul shall even forget to remember it was blind. And I
will utterly efface thy recollection of this husband, who is a husband
in nothing but the name, since he leaves thee deserted and alone, to be
afflicted; and instead of him I will be thy husband, and thy other half
and helper, and thy soother and thy lover and the very eyes and soul of
thee.
And Trishodadhi, as he listened, said with anxiety to himself: Ha! now
this liar of a king is very cunning, and beyond a doubt, many a woman
would have found it hard to resist the flattery of his tongue. And
oblivious of his muttering, he listened eagerly for the remainder of
the tale.