[2158] This river that you see, swift-flowing,
its rocky banks mantled with trees of many kinds —
that river my beloved crossed in the season of the rains,
thinking, I suppose, 'She is following after me.'
And I, for my part, was gathering aṅkola blossoms,
and adhimuttaka, sattali, and yodhikā —
my beloved would go adorned with garlands,
and I, garlanded, would draw close beside him.
And I was gathering this kuravaka here,
and uddālaka, pātalī, and sindhuvāra —
my beloved would go adorned with garlands,
and I, garlanded, would draw close beside him.
And having plucked the blossoms
of the sāl tree in full flower, I was making a garland —
my beloved would go adorned with garlands,
and I, garlanded, would draw close beside him.
And having plucked the blossoms
of the sāl tree in full flower, I was making a heap of them —
this would serve us for a couch to spread,
wherever today we should pass this night.
And I, heedless as I was, was grinding
aloeswood (agalu) and sandalwood upon a stone —
my beloved would go with limbs anointed,
and I, anointed, would draw close beside him.
Then came the flood-water, swift in its current,
sweeping before it the sāl, the salala, and the kaṇṇikāra;
in a mere moment the river rose full,
and by evening that river was for me most hard to cross.
Then we stood upon the two banks,
both of us gazing at one another:
now we wept, and now we laughed;
with hardship did that night wear away for us.
And at morning, when the sun had risen,
having crossed the river now grown shallow, O hunter,
we two embraced one another:
now we wept, and now we laughed.
It is seven hundred years less three, O hunter,
since here in former days we dwelt apart.
This life, O guardian of the earth, is but a single year —
who here would dwell apart from his beloved?
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.