In this chap­ter, grief and the tran­sient nature of life are cen­tral themes high­light­ed through the expe­ri­ences of Lipa and the old man she encoun­ters. After the death of her infant son in the dis­trict hos­pi­tal, Lipa faces the ardu­ous jour­ney home, a task that show­cas­es her pro­found resilience and the acute lone­li­ness that accom­pa­nies her loss. The vivid depic­tion of her surroundings—the set­ting sun, the vil­lage, the wildlife—serves as a poignant back­drop to her sor­row, empha­siz­ing the stark con­trast between the nat­ur­al beau­ty and vital­i­ty of the world and her inter­nal world of despair.

As Lipa nav­i­gates her way through the land­scape, a sim­ple inter­ac­tion with a woman and her horse by a pond offers a moment of reflec­tion, fur­ther illus­trat­ing the theme of life’s fleet­ing nature. This theme is under­scored by the bit­tern’s cry and the cho­rus of nightin­gales and frogs, which togeth­er cre­ate a sym­pho­ny that seems to mock her grief. How­ev­er, it is Lipa’s encounter with the old man and his com­pan­ion, Vav­i­la, that brings a sem­blance of com­fort. This moment of human con­nec­tion, how­ev­er brief, high­lights the uni­ver­sal nature of suf­fer­ing and the shared expe­ri­ences that bind peo­ple togeth­er.

The old man’s words to Lipa offer wis­dom on the nature of life and human knowl­edge, sug­gest­ing that our under­stand­ing is lim­it­ed by design, meant to sus­tain us but not to over­whelm. He shares his own life jour­ney, marked by hard­ship and resilience, rein­forc­ing the cycli­cal nature of good and bad times. This con­ver­sa­tion not only pro­vides Lipa with a momen­tary respite from her grief but also places her per­son­al tragedy with­in the broad­er con­text of human expe­ri­ence.

This chap­ter, rich in imagery and emo­tion­al depth, paints a vivid pic­ture of the human condition—its tri­als, its fleet­ing joys, and the inher­ent resilience that allows peo­ple like Lipa to per­se­vere in the face of insur­mount­able loss. It cap­tures the essence of life’s unpre­dictabil­i­ty and the inevitable inter­sec­tions of sor­row and hope, soli­tude and sol­i­dar­i­ty.