contined from vol 8 issue 35

These are Queen Kaikeyi’s wishes, these are boons for which I pray, I would see my son anointed, Rama banished on this day!”

THE KING’S LAMENT

Is this torturing dream or madness,
do my feeble senses fail,
O’er my darkened mind and bosom doth a fainting fit prevail?
So the stricken monarch pondered and in hushed and silent fear,
Looked on her as on a tigress looks the dazed and stricken deer,
Lying on the unswept pavement still he heaved the choking sigh,
Like a wild and hissing serpent quelled by incantations high! Sobs convulsive shook his bosom and his speech and accent failed,
And a dark and deathlike faintness o’er his feeble soul prevailed,
Stunned awhile remained the monarch, then in furious passion woke.
And his eyeballs flamed with redfire, to the queen as thus he spoke: “Traitress to thy king and husband, fell destroyer of thy race,
Wherefore seeks thy ruthless rancour Rama rich in righteous grace,
Traitress to thy kith and kindred, Rama loves thee as thy own,
Wherefore then with causeless vengeance as a mother hate thy son! Have I courted thee, Kaikeyi, throned thee in my heart of truth,
Nursed thee in my home and bosom like a snake of poisoned tooth,
Have I courted thee, Kaikeyi, placed thee on Ayodhya’s throne,
That my Rama, loved of people, thou shouldst banish from his own?
Banish far my Queen Kausalya,
Queen Sumitra saintly wife,
Wrench from me my ancient empire,
from my bosom wrench my life,
But with brave and princely Rama never can his father part,
Till his ancient life is ended, cold and still his beating heart! Sunless roll the world in darkness,
rainless may the harvests thrive, But from ri~hteous Rama severed,
never can his sire survive, Feeble is thy aged husband,
few and brief on earth his day, Lend me, wife, a woman’s kindness, as a consort be my stay! Ask for other boon, Kaikeyi, aught my seagirt empire yields,
Wealth or treasure, gem or jewel, castled town or smiling fields,
Ask for other gift,
Kaikeyi, and thy wishes shall be given, Stain me not with crime unholy in the eye of righteous Heaven!” Coldly spake the Queen Kaikeyi: “If thy royal heart repent,
Break thy word and plighted promise, let thy royal faith be rent,
Ever known for truth and virtue, speak to peers and monarchs all,
When from near and distant regions they shall gather in thy hall, Speak if so it please thee,
monarch, of thy evil-destined wife, How she loved with wife’s devotion, how she served and saved thy life,
How on plighted promise trusting for a humble boon she sighed, How a monarch broke his promise,
how a cheated woman died!” “Fair thy form,” resumed the monarch, “beauty dwells upon thy face, Woman’s winsome charms bedeck thee, and a woman’s peerless grace,
Wherefore then within thy bosom wakes this thought of cruel wile,
And what dark and loathsome spirit stains thy heart with blackest guile?
Ever since the day, Kaikeyi, when a gentle bride you came, By a wife’s unfailing duty you have won a woman’s fame, Wherefore now this cruel purpose hath a stainless heart defiled,
Ruthless wish to send my Rama to the dark and pathless wild? Wherefore,
darkly-scheming woman, on unrighteous purpose bent, Doth thy cruel causeless vengeance on my Rama seek a vent, Wherefore seek by deeds unholy for thy son the throne to win,
Throne which Bharat doth not covet,- blackened byhis mother’s sin? Shall I see my banished Rama mantled in the garb of woe, Reft of home and kin and empire to the pathless jungle go,
Shall I see disasters sweeping o’er my empire dark and deep,
As the forces of a foeman o’er a scattered army sweep? Shall I hear assembled monarchs in their whispered voices say, Weak and foolish in his dotapre,
Dasaratha holds his sway, Shall I say to righteous elders when they blame my action done,
That by woman’s mandate driven I have banished thus my son? Queen Kansalya, dear-loved woman! she who serves me as a slave, Soothes me like a tender sister,
helps me like a consort brave, As a fond and loving mother tends me with a watchful care,
As a daughter ever duteous doth obeisance sweet and fair,
When my fond and fair Kausalya asks me of her banished son,
How shall Dasa-ratha answer for the impious action done,
How can husband, cold and cruel, break a wife’s confiding heart, How can father, false and faithless, from his best and eldest part?” Coldly spake the Queen Kaikeyi: “If thy royal heart repent, Break thy word and plighted promise, let thy royal faith be rent,
Truth-abiding is our monarch, so I heard the people say,
And his word is all inviolate, stainless virtue marks his sway,
Let it now be known to nations,–righteous Dasa-ratha lied,
And a trusting, cheated woman broke her loving heart and died!” Darker grew the shades of midnight,
coldly shone each distant star,
Wilder in the monarch’s bosom raged the struggle and the war: “Starry midnight,
robed in shadows! give my wearied heart relief, Spread thy sable covering mantle o’er an impious monarch’s grief, Spread thy vast and inky darkness o’er a deed of nameless crime,
Reign perennial o’er my sorrows heedless of the lapse of time,
May a sinful monarch perish ere the dawning of the day,
O’er a dark life sin-polluted, beam not morning’s righteous ray!”

THE SENTENCE

Morning came and duteous Rama to the palace bent his way,
For to make his salutation and his due obeisance pay,
And he saw his aged father shorn of kingly pomp and pride,
And he saw the Queen Kaikeyi sitting by her consort’s side.
Duteously the righteous Rama touched the ancient monarch’s feet,
Touched the feet of Queen Kaikeyi with a son’s obeisance meet, “Rama!” cried the feeble monarch,
but the tear bedimmed his eye,
Sorrow choked his failing utterance and his bosom heaved a sigh,
Rama started in his terror at his father’s grief or wrath,

TO BE CONTINUED