[659]
"Send forth the tusker elephants, mighty ones sixty years of age;
let the elephants trample down the city so well built by Vedeha.
Let the arrows — white, with points like calves' teeth, sharp-tipped, piercers of bone —
impelled by the force of the bow, fly down thick, one upon another.
Let the young men in armor, heroes whose weapons bear ornamented shafts,
great heroes charging onward, stand face to face with the elephants.
Let the spears, washed in oil, flaming and resplendent,
stand flashing like the hundred-rayed star.
From such warriors as these — mighty in weapons, wearing corselets and armlets,
men who flee not in battle — how shall Vedeha escape,
unless like a bird he take flight?
Thirty nineties of men are mine, every one of them singly picked,
whose equal I do not see though I range over the whole earth.
And there are caparisoned tuskers, mighty ones sixty years of age,
upon whose shoulders shine young men lovely to behold:
adorned in yellow, clothed in yellow, in upper and lower garments of yellow,
they shine upon the elephants' shoulders like sons of the gods (devaputta) in Nandana Grove.
Swords the color of the pāṭhīna fish, washed in oil, resplendent,
brought to perfection by heroes among men, even-edged, keenly whetted;
supple, free of stain, made of tempered steel, strong,
grasped by mighty men who deal telling blows;
furnished with hilts of gold, borne in sheaths of red,
whirling about they flash like lightning amid the massed storm-clouds.
Foot-soldiers in armor, heroes skilled with sword and shield,
well-trained bowmen who fall upon the shoulders of elephants —
hemmed in by such as these, there is no escape for you from here;
I see no power of yours by which you might make your way to Mithilā."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.