Text 9.3

[This is an example of kāku-vakrokti (ambiguous utterance by a modulation of the voice):]

अतसी-कुसुम-श्यामं शत-सीमन्तिनी-वृतम् |
स-तृष्णं कृष्णम् आलोक्य हृदयं न विदूयते ||

atasī-kusuma-śyāmaṃ śata-sīmantinī-vṛtam |
sa-tṛṣṇaṃ kṛṣṇam ālokya hṛdayaṃ na vidūyate ||

atasī-kusuma—like a [blue] flax flower; śyāmam—dark blue; śata—one hundred; sīmantinī—by married women (“she has a parting in the hair”); vṛtam—surrounded; sa-tṛṣṇam—desirous; kṛṣṇam—Kṛṣṇa; ālokya—after seeing; hṛdayam—the heart; na—does not; vidūyate—burns.

[Candrāvalī speaks to Padmā:] The heart does not ache upon seeing Kṛṣṇa, who is dark like a blue flax flower, when He is surrounded by hundreds of women and is willing.

atraikayā niṣedhārthe prayukto nañ parayā ca kākvā dūyata eveti vidhy-arthe ghaṭitaḥ.

Here the negative particle is used in the sense of negation by one sakhī, but the other sakhī construes it with a modulation of the voice, so that it turns out as an affirmative statement (a rhetorical question): “The heart does not ache?” (Indeed it does.)

Commentary:

The verse illustrates vakrokti only if it is understood that the hearer responded: “The heart does not ache?” Otherwise it is only kāku (3.3; 5.14).