Ramayana, Book 2, The

<SPAN name="toc211" id="toc211"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf212" id="pdf212"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XXVIII" id="CantoII-XXVIII" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XXVIII. The Dangers Of The Wood.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus Sítá spake, and he who knew</div> <div>His duty, to its orders true,</div> <div>Was still reluctant as the woes</div> <div>Of forest life before him rose.</div> <div>He sought to soothe her grief, to dry</div> <div>The torrent from each brimming eye,</div> <div>And then, her firm resolve to shake,</div> <div>These words the pious hero spake:</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O daughter of a noble line,</span></div> <div>Whose steps from virtue ne'er decline,</div> <div>Remain, thy duties here pursue,</div> <div>As my fond heart would have thee do.</div> <div>Now hear me, Sítá, fair and weak,</div> <div>And do the words that I shall speak.</div> <div>Attend and hear while I explain</div> <div>Each danger in the wood, each pain.</div> <div>Thy lips have spoken: I condemn</div> <div>The foolish words that fell from them.</div> <div>This senseless plan, this wish of thine</div> <div>To live a forest life, resign.</div> <div>The names of trouble and distress</div> <div>Suit well the tangled wilderness.</div> <div>In the wild wood no joy I know,</div> <div>A forest life is nought but woe.</div> <div>The lion in his mountain cave</div> <div>Answers the torrents as they rave,</div> <div>And forth his voice of terror throws:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page128"></span><SPAN name="Pg128" id="Pg128" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>There mighty monsters fearless play,</div> <div>And in their maddened onset slay</div> <div>The hapless wretch who near them goes:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>'Tis hard to ford each treacherous flood,</div> <div>So thick with crocodiles and mud,</div> <div>Where the wild elephants repose:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>Or far from streams the wanderer strays</div> <div>Through thorns and creeper-tangled ways,</div> <div>While round him many a wild-cock crows:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>On the cold ground upon a heap</div> <div>Of gathered leaves condemned to sleep,</div> <div>Toil-wearied, will his eyelids close:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>Long days and nights must he content</div> <div>His soul with scanty aliment,</div> <div>What fruit the wind from branches blows:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>O Sítá, while his strength may last,</div> <div>The ascetic in the wood must fast,</div> <div>Coil on his head his matted hair,</div> <div>And bark must be his only wear.</div> <div>To Gods and spirits day by day</div> <div>The ordered worship he must pay,</div> <div>And honour with respectful care</div> <div>Each wandering guest who meets him there.</div> <div>The bathing rites he ne'er must shun</div> <div>At dawn, at noon, at set of sun,</div> <div>Obedient to the law he knows:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>To grace the altar must be brought</div> <div>The gift of flowers his hands have sought—</div> <div>The debt each pious hermit owes:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>The devotee must be content</div> <div>To live, severely abstinent,</div> <div>On what the chance of fortune shows:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>Hunger afflicts him evermore:</div> <div>The nights are black, the wild winds roar;</div> <div>And there are dangers worse than those:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>There creeping things in every form</div> <div>Infest the earth, the serpents swarm,</div> <div>And each proud eye with fury glows:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>The snakes that by the rives hide</div> <div>In sinuous course like rivers glide,</div> <div>And line the path with deadly foes:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>Scorpions, and grasshoppers, and flies</div> <div>Disturb the wanderer as he lies,</div> <div>And wake him from his troubled doze:</div> <div>The wood, my love, is full of woes.</div> <div>Trees, thorny bushes, intertwined,</div> <div>Their branched ends together bind,</div> <div>And dense with grass the thicket grows:</div> <div>The wood, my dear, is full of woes,</div> <div>With many ills the flesh is tried,</div> <div>When these and countless fears beside</div> <div>Vex those who in the wood remain:</div> <div>The wilds are naught but grief and pain.</div> <div>Hope, anger must be cast aside,</div> <div>To penance every thought applied:</div> <div>No fear must be of things to fear:</div> <div>Hence is the wood for ever drear.</div> <div>Enough, my love: thy purpose quit:</div> <div>For forest life thou art not fit.</div> <div>As thus I think on all, I see</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >The wild wood is no place for thee.”</span></div> </div> <SPAN name="toc213" id="toc213"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf214" id="pdf214"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XXIX" id="CantoII-XXIX" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XXIX. Sítá's Appeal.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus Ráma spake. Her lord's address</div> <div>The lady heard with deep distress,</div> <div>And, as the tear bedimmed her eye,</div> <div>In soft low accents made reply:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“The perils of the wood, and all</span></div> <div>The woes thou countest to appal,</div> <div>Led by my love I deem not pain;</div> <div>Each woe a charm, each loss a gain.</div> <div>Tiger, and elephant, and deer,</div> <div>Bull, lion, buffalo, in fear,</div> <div>Soon as thy matchless form they see,</div> <div>With every silvan beast will flee.</div> <div>With thee, O Ráma, I must go:</div> <div>My sire's command ordains it so.</div> <div>Bereft of thee, my lonely heart</div> <div>Must break, and life and I must part.</div> <div>While thou, O mighty lord, art nigh,</div> <div>Not even He who rules the sky,</div> <div>Though He is strongest of the strong,</div> <div>With all his might can do me wrong.</div> <div>Nor can a lonely woman left</div> <div>By her dear husband live bereft.</div> <div>In my great love, my lord, I ween,</div> <div>The truth of this thou mayst have seen.</div> <div>In my sire's palace long ago</div> <div>I heard the chief of those who know,</div> <div>The truth-declaring Bráhmans, tell</div> <div>My fortune, in the wood to dwell.</div> <div>I heard their promise who divine</div> <div>The future by each mark and sign,</div> <div>And from that hour have longed to lead</div> <div>The forest life their lips decreed.</div> <div>Now, mighty Ráma, I must share</div> <div>Thy father's doom which sends thee there;</div> <div>In this I will not be denied,</div> <div>But follow, love, where thou shalt guide.</div> <div>O husband, I will go with thee,</div> <div>Obedient to that high decree.</div> <div>Now let the Bráhmans' words be true,</div> <div>For this the time they had in view.</div> <div>I know full well the wood has woes;</div> <div>But they disturb the lives of those</div> <div>Who in the forest dwell, nor hold</div> <div>Their rebel senses well controlled.</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129"></span><SPAN name="Pg129" id="Pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>In my sire's halls, ere I was wed,</div> <div>I heard a dame who begged her bread</div> <div>Before my mother's face relate</div> <div>What griefs a forest life await.</div> <div>And many a time in sport I prayed</div> <div>To seek with thee the greenwood shade,</div> <div>For O, my heart on this is set,</div> <div>To follow thee, dear anchoret.</div> <div>May blessings on thy life attend:</div> <div>I long with thee my steps to bend,</div> <div>For with such hero as thou art</div> <div>This pilgrimage enchants my heart.</div> <div>Still close, my lord, to thy dear side</div> <div>My spirit will be purified:</div> <div>Love from all sin my soul will free:</div> <div>My husband is a God to me.</div> <div>So, love, with thee shall I have bliss</div> <div>And share the life that follows this.</div> <div>I heard a Bráhman, dear to fame,</div> <div>This ancient Scripture text proclaim:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“The woman whom on earth below</span></div> <div>Her parents on a man bestow,</div> <div>And lawfully their hands unite</div> <div>With water and each holy rite,</div> <div>She in this world shall be his wife,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >His also in the after life.”</span></div> <div>Then tell me, O beloved, why</div> <div>Thou wilt this earnest prayer deny,</div> <div>Nor take me with thee to the wood,</div> <div>Thine own dear wife so true and good.</div> <div>But if thou wilt not take me there</div> <div>Thus grieving in my wild despair,</div> <div>To fire or water I will fly,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Or to the poisoned draught, and die.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>So thus to share his exile, she</div> <div>Besought him with each earnest plea,</div> <div>Nor could she yet her lord persuade</div> <div>To take her to the lonely shade.</div> <div>The answer of the strong-armed chief</div> <div>Smote the Videhan's soul with grief,</div> <div>And from her eyes the torrents came</div> <div>bathing the bosom of the dame.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc215" id="toc215"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf216" id="pdf216"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XXX" id="CantoII-XXX" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XXX. The Triumph Of Love.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>The daughter of Videha's king,</div> <div>While Ráma strove to soothe the sting</div> <div>Of her deep anguish, thus began</div> <div>Once more in furtherance of her plan:</div> <div>And with her spirit sorely tried</div> <div>By fear and anger, love and pride,</div> <div>With keenly taunting words addressed</div> <div>Her hero of the stately breast:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Why did the king my sire, who reigns</span></div> <div>O'er fair Videha's wide domains,</div> <div>Hail Ráma son with joy unwise,</div> <div>A woman in a man's disguise?</div> <div>Now falsely would the people say,</div> <div>By idle fancies led astray,</div> <div>That Ráma's own are power and might,</div> <div>As glorious as the Lord of Light.</div> <div>Why sinkest thou in such dismay?</div> <div>What fears upon thy spirit weigh,</div> <div>That thou, O Ráma, fain wouldst flee</div> <div>From her who thinks of naught but thee?</div> <div>To thy dear will am I resigned</div> <div>In heart and body, soul and mind,</div> <div>As Sávitrí gave all to one,</div> <div>Satyaván, Dyumatsena's son.<SPAN id="noteref_304" name="noteref_304" href="#note_304"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">304</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>Not e'en in fancy can I brook</div> <div>To any guard save thee to look:</div> <div>Let meaner wives their houses shame,</div> <div>To go with thee is all my claim.</div> <div>Like some low actor, deemst thou fit</div> <div>Thy wife to others to commit—</div> <div>Thine own, espoused in maiden youth,</div> <div>Thy wife so long, unblamed for truth?</div> <div>Do thou, my lord, his will obey</div> <div>For whom thou losest royal sway,</div> <div>To whom thou wouldst thy wife confide—</div> <div>Not me, but thee, his wish may guide.</div> <div>Thou must not here thy wife forsake,</div> <div>And to the wood thy journey make,</div> <div>Whether stern penance, grief, and care,</div> <div>Or rule or heaven await thee there.</div> <div>Nor shall fatigue my limbs distress</div> <div>When wandering in the wilderness:</div> <div>Each path which near to thee I tread</div> <div>Shall seem a soft luxurious bed.</div> <div>The reeds, the bushes where I pass,</div> <div>The thorny trees, the tangled grass</div> <div>Shall feel, if only thou be near,</div> <div>Soft to my touch as skins of deer.</div> <div>When the rude wind in fury blows,</div> <div>And scattered dust upon me throws,</div> <div>That dust, beloved lord, to me</div> <div>Shall as the precious sandal be.</div> <div>And what shall be more blest than I,</div> <div>When gazing on the wood I lie</div> <div>In some green glade upon a bed</div> <div>With sacred grass beneath us spread?</div> <div>The root, the leaf, the fruit which thou</div> <div>Shalt give me from the earth or bough,</div> <div>Scanty or plentiful, to eat,</div> <div>Shall taste to me as Amrit sweet.</div> <div>As there I live on flowers and roots</div> <div>And every season's kindly fruits,</div> <div>I will not for my mother grieve,</div> <div>My sire, my home, or all I leave.</div> <div>My presence, love, shall never add</div> <div>One pain to make the heart more sad;</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130"></span><SPAN name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>I will not cause thee grief or care,</div> <div>Nor be a burden hard to bear.</div> <div>With thee is heaven, where'er the spot;</div> <div>Each place is hell where thou art not.</div> <div>Then go with me, O Ráma; this</div> <div>Is all my hope and all my bliss.</div> <div>If thou wilt leave thy wife who still</div> <div>Entreats thee with undaunted will,</div> <div>This very day shall poison close</div> <div>The life that spurns the rule of foes.</div> <div>How, after, can my soul sustain</div> <div>The bitter life of endless pain,</div> <div>When thy dear face, my lord, I miss?</div> <div>No, death is better far than this.</div> <div>Not for an hour could I endure</div> <div>The deadly grief that knows not cure,</div> <div>Far less a woe I could not shun</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >For ten long years, and three, and one.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>While fires of woe consumed her, such</div> <div>Her sad appeal, lamenting much;</div> <div>Then with a wild cry, anguish-wrung,</div> <div>About her husband's neck she clung.</div> <div>Like some she-elephant who bleeds</div> <div>Struck by the hunter's venomed reeds,</div> <div>So in her quivering heart she felt</div> <div>The many wounds his speeches dealt.</div> <div>Then, as the spark from wood is gained,<SPAN id="noteref_305" name="noteref_305" href="#note_305"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">305</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>Down rolled the tear so long restrained:</div> <div>The crystal moisture, sprung from woe,</div> <div>From her sweet eyes began to flow,</div> <div>As runs the water from a pair</div> <div>Of lotuses divinely fair.</div> <div>And Sítá's face with long dark eyes,</div> <div>Pure as the moon of autumn skies,</div> <div>Faded with weeping, as the buds</div> <div>Of lotuses when sink the floods.</div> <div>Around his wife his arms he strained,</div> <div>Who senseless from her woe remained,</div> <div>And with sweet words, that bade her wake</div> <div>To life again, the hero spake:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“I would not with thy woe, my Queen,</span></div> <div>Buy heaven and all its blissful sheen.</div> <div>Void of all fear am I as He,</div> <div>The self-existent God, can be.</div> <div>I knew not all thy heart till now,</div> <div>Dear lady of the lovely brow,</div> <div>So wished not thee in woods to dwell;</div> <div>Yet there mine arm can guard thee well.</div> <div>Now surely thou, dear love, wast made</div> <div>To dwell with me in green wood shade.</div> <div>And, as a high saint's tender mind</div> <div>Clings to its love for all mankind,</div> <div>So I to thee will ever cling,</div> <div>Sweet daughter of Videha's king.</div> <div>The good, of old, O soft of frame,</div> <div>Honoured this duty's sovereign claim,</div> <div>And I its guidance will not shun,</div> <div>True as light's Queen is to the Sun.</div> <div>I cannot, pride of Janak's line,</div> <div>This journey to the wood decline:</div> <div>My sire's behest, the oath he sware,</div> <div>The claims of truth, all lead me there.</div> <div>One duty, dear the same for aye,</div> <div>Is sire and mother to obey:</div> <div>Should I their orders once transgress</div> <div>My very life were weariness.</div> <div>If glad obedience be denied</div> <div>To father, mother, holy guide,</div> <div>What rites, what service can be done</div> <div>That stern Fate's favour may be won?</div> <div>These three the triple world comprise,</div> <div>O darling of the lovely eyes.</div> <div>Earth has no holy thing like these</div> <div>Whom with all love men seek to please.</div> <div>Not truth, or gift, or bended knee,</div> <div>Not honour, worship, lordly fee,</div> <div>Storms heaven and wins a blessing thence</div> <div>Like sonly love and reverence.</div> <div>Heaven, riches, grain, and varied lore,</div> <div>With sons and many a blessing more,</div> <div>All these are made their own with ease</div> <div>By those their elders' souls who please.</div> <div>The mighty-souled, who ne'er forget,</div> <div>Devoted sons, their filial debt,</div> <div>Win worlds where Gods and minstrels are,</div> <div>And Brahmá's sphere more glorious far.</div> <div>Now as the orders of my sire,</div> <div>Who keeps the way of truth, require,</div> <div>So will I do, for such the way</div> <div>Of duty that endures for aye:</div> <div>To take thee, love, to Daṇḍak's wild</div> <div>My heart at length is reconciled,</div> <div>For thee such earnest thoughts impel</div> <div>To follow, and with me to dwell.</div> <div>O faultless form from feet to brows,</div> <div>Come with me, as my will allows,</div> <div>And duty there with me pursue,</div> <div>Trembler, whose bright eyes thrill me through.</div> <div>In all thy days, come good come ill,</div> <div>Preserve unchanged such noble will,</div> <div>And thou, dear love, wilt ever be</div> <div>The glory of thy house and me.</div> <div>Now, beauteous-armed, begin the tasks</div> <div>The woodland life of hermits asks.</div> <div>For me the joys of heaven above</div> <div>Have charms no more without thee, love.</div> <div>And now, dear Sítá, be not slow:</div> <div>Food on good mendicants bestow,</div> <div>And for the holy Bráhmans bring</div> <div>Thy treasures and each precious thing.</div> <div>Thy best attire and gems collect,</div> <div>The jewels which thy beauty decked,</div> <div>And every ornament and toy</div> <div>Prepared for hours of sport and joy:</div> <div>The beds, the cars wherein I ride,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Among our followers, next, divide.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>She conscious that her lord approved</div> <div>Her going, with great rapture moved,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page131"></span><SPAN name="Pg131" id="Pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Hastened within, without delay,</div> <div>Prepared to give their wealth away.</div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />