for thee?’
  And once he led the chase of a wild boar
  In the great forest near the glacier’s foot;
  On Kantaka so fleet he soon outstripped
  The rest, and in the distance disappeared. 
  But when at night they reached the rendezvous,
  Siddartha was not there; and through the night
  They searched, fearing to find their much loved prince
  A mangled corpse under some towering cliff,
  But searched in vain, and searched again next day,
  Till in despair they thought to bring me word
  The prince was lost, when Kantaka was seen
  Loose-reined and free, and near Siddartha sat
  Under a giant cedar’s spreading shade. 
  Absorbed in thought, in contemplation lost,
  Unconscious that a day and night had passed. 
  I cannot reason with such earnestness—­
  I dare not chide such deep and tender love,
  But much I fear his reason’s overthrow
  Or that he may become like that recluse
  He shuddered at, and not a mighty king
  With power to crush the wrong and aid the right. 
  How can we turn his mind from such sad thoughts
  To life’s full joys, the duties of a king,
  And his great destiny so long foretold?”

The oldest and the wisest answered him: 
“Most noble king, your thoughts have long been mine. 
Oft have I seen him lost in musings sad,
And overwhelmed with this absorbing love. 
I know no cure for such corroding thoughts
But thoughts less sad, for such absorbing love
But stronger love.” 
“But how awake such thoughts?”
The king replied.  “How kindle such a love? 
His loves seem but as phosphorescent flames
That skim the surface, leaving him heart-whole—­
All but this deep and all-embracing love
That folds within its arms a suffering world.”

“Yes, noble king, so roams the antlered deer,
Adding each year a branch to his great horns,
Until the unseen archer lays him low. 
So lives our prince; but he may see the day
Two laughing eyes shall pierce his inmost soul,
And make his whole frame quiver with new fire. 
The next full moon he reaches man’s estate. 
We all remember fifty years ago
When you became a man, the sports and games,
The contests of fair women and brave men,
In beauty, arts and arms, that filled three days
With joy and gladness, music, dance and song. 
Let us with double splendor now repeat
That festival, with prizes that shall draw
From all your kingdom and the neighbor states
Their fairest women and their bravest men. 
If any chance shall bring his destined mate,
You then shall see love dart from eye to eye,
As darts the lightning’s flash from cloud to cloud.” 
And this seemed good, and so was ordered done.