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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.15.13

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 15: Rāma’s winter bath in the Godāvarī. Lakṣmaṇa describes cold water and imagines Bharata’s Sarayū bath, Rāma bathes with Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa and offers water

In the sequence: frost dims the moon like breath clouding a mirror and makes the west wind doubly cold

3.15.13

ravisaṃkrāntasaubhābyas tuṣārāruṇamaṇḍalaḥ
niḥśvāsāndha ivādarśaś candramā na prakāśate

Its splendour passed over to the sun, its orb ruddy with frost, the moon does not shine — like a mirror dimmed by breath.

Words: ravisaṃkrāntasaubhābyas — its beauty passed over to the sun; tuṣārāruṇamaṇḍalaḥ — with an orb ruddy with frost; niḥśvāsāndha — dimmed by breath (as a mirror); ivādarśaś — like a mirror; candramā — the moon; na — not; prakāśate — shines

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.