--- title: A Sleep and a Dream., part 1 — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · full text with trees · page 2 description: A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: I. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/3/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/) / A Sleep and a Dream., part 1 # A Sleep and a Dream., part 1 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/3/) **2** And when the King heard this, he was astonished, and sat silent, looking at Shrí.[65](../../65/ "tree and pragmatics") And he said to himself: This is a strange story, and the conduct of this mysterious daughter of mine is inscrutable.[66](../../66/ "tree and pragmatics") What is this Land of the Lotus of the Sun?[67](../../67/ "tree and pragmatics") Is it a fancy, the capricious dream of a girl?[68](../../68/ "tree and pragmatics") Or does the dream really point to a previous existence?[69](../../69/ "tree and pragmatics") And he thought for a while, and then he said again: Perhaps it is better to do as she says, and endeavour to discover a man who has seen that Land.[70](../../70/ "tree and pragmatics") For where is the harm?[71](../../71/ "tree and pragmatics") For even if he is found, there will always be time to consider.[72](../../72/ "tree and pragmatics") And, moreover, in this way it may be that she will obtain a husband, whereas she will certainly not get married in any other.[73](../../73/ "tree and pragmatics") Better that she should get a husband, no matter how, no matter who, than remain a maiden to destroy us all.[74](../../74/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he dismissed his daughter, and summoned his chamberlains, and said to them: Get criers, and send them through the city, and let them proclaim by beat of drum: That any high caste man, who has seen the Land of the Lotus of the Sun, shall share my kingdom, and marry my daughter.[75](../../75/ "tree and pragmatics") And his chamberlains wondered at hearing the order.[76](../../76/ "tree and pragmatics") But they went immediately, and told the criers the order of the King.[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") \[1\] That is, her soul, as distinguished from her body: that part of her which, according to Plato and the Bhagwad-Gitá (more logical than modern theologians) \_is never born and never dies\_.[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") \[2\] \_The home of Shrí\_, i.e. a blue lotus, which is so called because the goddess Shrí appeared floating in one at the creation.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") \[3\] \_shánta\_: one who has quelled the passions and attained peace.[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") Of such, Shiwa is the chief.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") \[4\] Hence the name of the city, above.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") \[5\] Beauty and salt, in the original, are denoted by the same word.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") \[6\] That is, 'a woman with sweet seductive eyes.'[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") \[7\] A pretty term employed by ladies in addressing their lords: 'son of an \_arya\_, a gentleman.'[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") It has no English equivalent.[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") \[8\] The old Hindoos had a special admiration and a special term (\_hansagaminí\_) for a woman who walked like a swan.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") \[9\] There is here an untranslateable play on the word kamalahása, which means both \_the opening of a lotus bud\_, and an \_irresistible smile\_.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") \[10\] \_wyatikara\_, a word expressive of the \_varying\_ lustre or \_wavering\_ coruscation of jewels.[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") \[11\] cf.[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") Callimachus: dós moi partheníen aión ion, appa, phylássein.[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") \[12\] This touch arises from the beautiful word for a daughter, átmajá, i.e. \_she that is born from yourself\_.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") \[13\] A case, perhaps, not absolutely unknown in the west: though beauty, like a fortress, must always like to be flattered by a siege.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") But in the land of the Hindoos, marriage is like being born or dying, a matter of course, a thing necessary, inevitable, essential, \_quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus\_.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") \[14\] There is, in the original here, a \_nuance\_ not susceptible of direct translation.[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") According to the Hindoos, lotuses are divided into those of the Day and Night, whose lovers are the Sun and Moon.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") The Lotus in question is a Sun-lotus '\_between the Twilights\_,' i.e., buried in night, and deprived of the presence of the Sun. An allusion to the title of the story is thus introduced.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") But all this cannot be expressed in English, as it can in Sanskrit, by a single word.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") II.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") By Beat of Drum[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") So the criers went through the streets of the capital, beating drums and crying aloud: \_Whatsoever high-caste man has been to the Land of the Lotus of the Sun, let him come to the King: he shall share the King's kingdom, and marry the King's daughter\_.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") And hearing the proclamation, all the citizens and strangers in the city marvelled as they listened.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") For the fame of the beauty of the King's daughter had gone out into the three worlds.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") And buzzing like bees, they thronged around the criers, and ran up and down, everybody asking everybody else: What is this Land of the Lotus of the Sun?[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") Where is it, or who has seen it?[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") And a great uproar arose in the streets of the city, and they were full of noise and shouting: and the news was carried into the neighbouring kingdoms, and immediately crowds of people poured into Indirálaya from every part of Málwá and the Deckan and the North, and every quarter of the world, and together with the merchants and the working castes, who all abandoned their ordinary business, gathered in knots and stood about, asking eagerly for news of that Lotus Land, and its nature, and its locality, and its peculiarities.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") But no one could be found who had ever even heard of it, much less seen it.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") So day by day the proclamation sounded in the streets: and all day long the city was full of the din of shouting criers and beaten drums, and all night long sleep fled from the eyes of the citizens, as if in disgust at the noise that they made by day.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") But all was in vain: for not a man could they find, nor did anyone come forward to say: I have seen that Lotus Country: give me the reward.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") And at last the citizens became enraged, alike with the King, and his daughter, and the Land of the Lotus, and themselves.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") And seeing this, the old King fell sick with anxiety: and he said to himself: My pretty daughter is as cunning as she is beautiful, and beyond a doubt this is some trick devised by her, to appease me, and avoid her bugbear of a husband, and befool us all.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") And now I fear that in their fury my subjects may break out into revolt, and refuse to pay taxes, or depose me.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") Out on my daughter and her blue eyes, and the cunning of women and their crooked hearts\![114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") Is there any such land in the world, as this Land of the Lotus of the Sun, of which in all my dominions, haunted by merchants and strangers from every quarter of the earth, no one has ever even so much as heard?[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/3/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/3/) - next →: [A Sleep and a Dream., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/) - ↑ back to [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/)