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<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXIII. Ráma's Lament.</span></h2>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thus for his wife in vain he sought:</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then, his sad soul with pain distraught,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The hero of the lotus eyes</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Filled all the air with frantic cries.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">O'erpowered by love's strong influence, he</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">His absent wife still seemed to see,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And thus with accents weak and faint</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Renewed with tears his wild complaint:</div>
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<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Thou, fairer than their bloom, my spouse,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Art hidden by Aśoka boughs.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Those blooms have power to banish care,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But now they drive me to despair.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thine arms are like the plantain's stem:</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Why let the plantain cover them?</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thou art not hidden, love; thy feet</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Betray thee in thy dark retreat.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thou runnest in thy girlish sport</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To flowery trees, thy dear resort.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But cease, O cease, my love, I pray,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To vex me with thy cruel play.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Such mockery in a holy spot</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Where hermits dwell beseems thee not.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Ah, now I see thy fickle mind</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To scornful mood too much inclined,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Come, large-eyed beauty, I implore;</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lone is the cot so dear before.</div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">No, she is slain by giants; they</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Have stolen or devoured their prey,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or surely at my mournful cry</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">My darling to her lord would fly.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">O Lakshmaṇ, see those troops of deer:</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In each sad eye there gleams a tear.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Those looks of woe too clearly say</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">My consort is the giants' prey.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">O noblest, fairest of the fair,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Where art thou, best of women, where?</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This day will dark Kaikeyí find</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Fresh triumph for her evil mind,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When I, who with my Sítá came</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Return alone, without my dame.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But ne'er can I return to see</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Those chambers where my queen should be</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And hear the scornful people speak</div>
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<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of Ráma as a coward weak.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For mine will be the coward's shame</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who let the foeman steal his dame.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">How can I seek my home, or brook</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Upon Videha's king to look?</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">How listen, when he bids me tell,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">My wanderings o'er, that all is well?</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">He, when I meet his eager view,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Will mark that Sítá comes not too,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And when he hears the mournful tale</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">His wildered sense will reel and fail.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O Daśaratha”</span> will he cry,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Blest in thy mansion in the sky!”</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Ne'er to that town my steps shall bend,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That town which Bharat's arms defend,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For e'en the blessed homes above</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Would seem a waste without my love.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Leave me, my brother, here, I pray;</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To fair Ayodhyá bend thy way.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Without my love I cannot bear</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To live one hour in blank despair.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Round Bharat's neck thy fond arms twine,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And greet him with these words of mine:</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Dear brother, still the power retain,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And o'er the land as monarch reign.”</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With salutation next incline</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Before thy mother, his, and mine.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Still, brother, to my words attend,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And with all care each dame befriend.</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To my dear mother's ear relate</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">My mournful tale and Sítá's fate.”</span></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">Thus Ráma gave his sorrow vent,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And from a heart which anguish rent,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Mourned for his wife in loud lament,—</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">Her of the glorious hair,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">From Lakshmaṇ's cheek the colour fled,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And o'er his heart came sudden dread,</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Sick, faint, and sore disquieted</div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">By woe too great to bear.</div>
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