Canto Xxix.: St'S Appeal.

Thus Rma spake. Her lord's address

The lady heard with deep distress.

And, as the tear bedimmed her eye,

In soft low accents made reply:

'The perils of the wood, and all

The woes thou countest to appal,

Led by my love I deem not pain;

Each woe a charm, each loss a gain,

Tiger, and elephant, and deer,

Bull, lion, buffalo, in fear,

Soon as thy matchless form they see,

With every silvan beast will flee.

With thee, O Rma, I must go:

My sire's command ordains it so.

Bereft of thee, my lonely heart

Must break, and life and I must part.

While thou, O mighty lord, art nigh,

Not even He who rules the sky,

Though He is strongest of the strong,

With all his might can do me wrong.

Nor can a lonely woman left

By her dear husband live bereft.

In my great love, my lord, I ween,

The truth of this thou mayst have seen.

In my sire's palace long ago

I heard the chief of those who know,

The truth-declaring Brhmans, tell

My fortune, in the wood to dwell.

I heard their promise who divine

The future by each mark and sign,

And from that hour have longed to lead

The forest life their lips decreed.

Now, mighty Rma, I must share

Thy father's doom which sends thee there;

In this I will not be denied,

But follow, love, where thou shalt guide.

O husband, I will go with thee,

Obedient to that high decree,

Now let the Brhmans' words be true,

For this the time they had in view.

I know full well the wood has woes;

But they disturb the lives of those

Who in the forest dwell, nor hold

Their rebel senses well controlled.

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In my sire's halls, ere I was wed,

I heard a dame who begged her bread

Before my mother's face relate

What griefs a forest life await.

And many a time in sport I prayed

To seek with thee the greenwood shade,

For O, my heart on this is set,

To follow thee, dear anchoret.

May blessings on thy life attend:

I long with thee my steps to bend,

For with such hero as thou art

This pilgrimage enchants my heart.

Still close, my lord, to thy dear side

My spirit will be purified:

Love from all sin my soul will free:

My husband is a God to me.

So, love, with thee shall I have bliss

And share the life that follows this.

I heard a Brahman, dear to fame,

This ancient Scripture text proclaim:

'The woman whom on earth below

Her parents on a man bestow,

And lawfully their hands unite

With water and each holy rite,

She in this world shall be his wife,

His also in the after life.'

Then tell me, O beloved, why

Thou wilt this earnest prayer deny,

Nor take me with thee to the wood,

Thine own dear wife so true and good.

But if thou wilt not take me there

Thus grieving in my wild despair,

To fire or water I will fly,

Or to the poisoned draught, and die.'

So thus to share his exile, she

Besought him with each earnest plea,

Nor could she yet her lord persuade

To take her to the lonely shade.

The answer of the strong-armed chief

Smote the Videhan's soul with grief,

And from her eyes the torrents came

bathing the bosom of the dame.

Book Ii. Canto Xxix. S'it'a's Appeal