One day, in the palace pavilion park, Marmmawati, the queen, found some lines of poetry on a pudak, the petals of a pandanus flower. Enchanted, she copied them. Then she quickly returned to her chamber. Light rain was falling. There, alone, she murmurs the lines.

And there is misunderstanding.

King Jayawikrama hears her murmurs as he enters the chamber. He knows the lines are a love poem. He is suspicious: his wife must be longing for her lover. An