Rāmāyaṇacampū 3.9_5

3.9_5

Thereafter, alighting upon Mount Lamba on the far shore of the ocean, having assumed a very minute form and approached the northern city gate of Laṅkā, his inner heart became stretched with threads of intense anxiety:
"How can the vānara army cross this ocean that spreads obstacles? Even granting that it crosses, how could it approach this capital of the rākṣasas? The son of Daśaratha will have his desires completely frustrated; I alone have accomplished the leaping of the ocean in vain; and I do not know whether the daughter of Janaka is alive or not." Desiring thus to find the venerable Sītā there, the son of Añjanā wished solely for the setting of the Sun, the garlanded with rays, for the sake of moving about in disguise.
Thereupon, as the lordly Sun was entering the western direction, as if to tell Varuṇa that the time of purpose was approaching for Indra's bow deposited in Agastya's presence:
As the evening glow arose, creating a multitude of doubts for everyone—wondering whether this sky was reddened by rows of forest-fire flames surging from the slopes of the western mountain; or if it was tinged pale-red by masses of flames flaring from clusters of sunstones on the shore emitting fire due to the tighter wrapping of the sun's setting rays; or if it was flushed crimson by the rays of rubies disgorged from the depths of the ocean by Varuna with a delighted heart to offer a costly oblation to his arrived friend, the sun; or if it was colored here by the mass of rays from the submarine fire of the western ocean that had swelled even to taste the waters of the celestial river—while the rows of lotuses closed the panels of their petal-doors; while the bee-twice-born wandered from blue lotus to blue lotus begging for nectar; while the evening breezes became astringent by brushing against blooming blue lotus buds; while darkness spread here and there; while the gateways of the cities of the world-guardians were blackened by masses of black aloe smoke; while in every lotus pond the plaintive cry of the cakravāka birds commenced as the prelude to the agony of separation; and while the elephant of the sky was adorned with a garland of stars,