Home > Library > New > Anonymous > The Ramayana > Book Iv. Canto Ii. Sugr'iva's Alarm

Book Iv. Canto Ii. Sugr'iva's Alarm

Canto Ii.: Sugrva'S Alarm.


Sugrva moved by wondering awe

The high-souled sons of Raghu saw,

In all their glorious arms arrayed;

And grief upon his spirit weighed.

To every quarter of the sky

He turned in fear his anxious eye,

And roving still from spot to spot

With troubled steps he rested not.

He durst not, as he viewed the pair,

Resolve to stand and meet them there:

And drooping cheer and quailing breast

The terror of the chief confessed.

While the great fear his bosom shook,

Brief counsel with his lords he took;

Each gain and danger closely scanned,

What hope in flight, what power to stand,

While doubt and fear his bosom rent,

On Raghu's sons his eyes he bent,

And with a spirit ill at ease

Addressed his lords in words like these:

'Those chiefs with wandering steps invade

The shelter of our pathless shade,

And hither come in fair disguise

Of hermit garb as Bli's spies.'

Each lord beheld with troubled heart

Those masters of the bowman's art,

And left the mountain side to seek

Sure refuge on a loftier peak.

The Vnar chief in rapid flight

Found shelter on a towering height,

And all the band with one accord

Were closely gathered round their lord.

Their course the same, with desperate leap

Each made his way from steep to steep,

And speeding on in wild career

Filled every height with sudden fear.

Each heart was struck with mortal dread,

As on their course the Vnars sped,

While trees that crowned the steep were bent

And crushed beneath them as they went.

As in their eager flight they pressed

For safety to each mountain crest,

The wild confusion struck with fear

Tiger and cat and wandering deer.

The lords who watched Sugrva's will

Were gathered on the royal hill,

And all with reverent hands upraised

Upon their king and leader gazed.

Sugrva feared some evil planned,

Some train prepared by Bli's hand.

But skilled in words that charm and teach,

Thus Hanumn 1b began his speech:

Dismiss, dismiss thine idle fear,

Nor dread the power of Bli here.

For this is Malaya's glorious hill 2b

Where Bl's might can work no ill.

I look around but nowhere see

The hated foe who made thee flee,

Fell Bli, fierce in form and face:

Then fear not, lord of Vnar race.

Alas, in thee I clearly find

The weakness of the Vnar kind,

p. 325

That loves from thought to thought to range,

Fix no belief and welcome change.

Mark well each hint and sign and scan,

Discreet aud wise, thine every plan.

How may a king, with sense denied,

The subjects of his sceptre guide?'

Hanmn, 1 wise in hour of need,

Urged on the chief his prudent rede.

His listening ear Sugrva bent,

And spake in words more excellent:

'Where is the dauntless heart that free

From terror's chilling touch can see

Two stranger warriors, strong as those,

Equipped with swords and shafts and bows,

With mighty arms and large full eyes,

Like glorious children of the skies

Bli my foe, I ween, has sent

These chiefs to aid his dark intent.

Hence doubt and fear disturb me still,

For thousands serve a monarch's will,

In borrowed garb they come, and those

Who walk disguised are counted foes.

With secret thoughts they watch their time,

And wound fond hearts that fear no crime

My foe in state affairs is wise,

And prudent kings have searching eyes.

By other hands they strike the foe:

By meaner tools the truth they know.

Now to those stranger warriors turn,

And, less than king, their purpose learn.

Mark well the trick and look of each;

Observe his form and note his speech.

With care their mood and temper sound,

And, if their minds be friendly found,

With courteous looks and words begin

Their confidence and love to win.

Then as my friend and envoy speak,

And question where the strangers seek.

Ask why equipped with shaft and bow

Through this wild maze of wood they go.

If does, O chief, as first appear

Pure of all guile, in heart sincere,

Detect in speech and look the sin

And treachery that lurk within.'

He spoke: the Wind-God's son obeyed.

With ready zeal he sought the shade,

And reached with hasty steps the wood

Where Ragbu's son and Lakshman stood. 2

The envoy in his faithful breast

Pondered Sugriv's high behest.

From Rishyamka's peak he hied

And placed him by the princes' side.

The Wind-God's son with cautious art

Had laid his Vnar form apart,

And wore, to cheat the strangers eyes,

A wandering mendicant's disguise. 1b

Before the heroes' feet he bent

And did obeisance reverent,

And spoke, the gloirious pair to praise,

His words of truth in courteous phrase,

High honour duly paid, the best

Of all the Vnar kind addressed,

With free accord and gentle grace,

Those glories of their warrior race:

'O hermits, blest in vows, who shine

Like royal saints or Gods divine,

O best of young ascetics, say

How to this spot you found your way,

Scaring the troops of wandering deer

And silvan things that harbour here

Searching amid the trees that grow

Where Pamp's gentle waters flow.

And lending from your brows a gleam

Of glory to the lovely stream.

Who are you, say, so brave and fair.

Clad in the bark which hermits wear?

I see you have the frequent sigh,

I see the deer before you fly.

While you, for strength and valour dread,

The earth, like lordly lions, tread,

Each bearing in his hand a bow,

Like Indra's own, to slay the foe,

With the grand paces of bull,

So bright and young and beautiful

The mighty arms you raise appear

Like trunks which elephants uprear,

And as you move this mountain-king 2b

Is glorious with the light you bring.

How have you reached, like Gods in face,

Best lords of earth, this lonely place,

p. 326

With tresses coiled in hermit guise, 1

And splendours of those lotus eyes?

As God's who leave their heavenly sphere,

Alike your beauteous forms appear.

Tne Lords of Day and Night 2 might thus

Stray from the skies to visit us.

Heroic youth, so broad of chest,

Fair with the beauty of the Blest,

With lion shoulders, tall and strong,

Like bulls who lead the lowing throng.

Your arms, unmatched for grace and length,

With massive clubs may vie in strength.

Why do no gauds those limbs adorn

Where priceless gems were meetly worn?

Each noble youth is fit, I deem,

To guard this earth, as lord supreme,

With all her woods and seas, to reign

From Meru's peak to Vindhya's chain.

Your smooth bows decked with dyes and gold

Are glorious in their masters' hold,

And with the arms of Indra 3 vie

Which diamond splendours beautify.

Your quivers glow with golden sheen,

Well stored with arrows fleet and keen,

Each gleaming like a flery snake

That joys the foeman's life to take.

As serpents cast their sloughs away

And all their new born sheen display,

So flash your mighty swords inlaid

With burning gold on hilt and blade.

Why are you silent, heroes? Why

My questions hear nor deign reply?

Sugrva, lord of virtuous mind.

The foremost of the Vnar kind.

An exile from his royal state,

Roams through the land disconsolate.

I Hanumn, of Vnar race,

Sent by the king have sought this place,

For he, the pious, just, and true.

In friendly league would join with you.

Know, godlike youths, that I am one

Of his chief lords, the Wind-God's son.

With course unchecked I roam will,

And now from Rishyamka's hill.

To please his heart, his hope to speed,

I came disguised in beggar's weed.'

Thus Hanumn, well trained in lore

Of language spoke, and said no more.

The son of Raghu joyed to hear

The envoy's speech, and bright of cheer

He turned to Lakshman by his side,

And thus in words of transport cried:

'The counselor we now behold

Of King Sugrva righteous souled.

His face I long have yearned to see,

And now his envoy comes to me

With sweetest words in courteous phrase

Answer this mighty lord who slays

His foemen, by Sugrva sent.

This Vnar chief most eloquent.

For one whose words so sweetly flow

The whole Rig-veda 1b needs must know,

And in his well-trained memory store

The Yajush and the Sman's lore.

He must have bent his faithful ear

All grammar's varied rules to hear.

For his long speech how well he spoke!

In all its length no rule he broke.

In eye, on brow, in all his face

The keenest look no guile could trace.

No change of hue, no pose of limb

Gave sign that aught was false in him.

Concise, unfaltering, sweet and clear,

Without a word to pain the ear.

From chest to throat, nor high nor low,

His accents came in measured flow.

How well he spoke with perfect art

That wondrous speech that charmed the heart,

With finest skill and order graced

In words that knew nor pause nor haste!

That speech, with consonants that spring

From the three seats of uttering, 2b

Would charm the spirit of a foe

Whose sword is raised for mortal blow.

How may a ruler's plan succeed

Who lacks such envoy good at need?

How fail, if one whose mind is stored

With gifts so rare assist his lord?

What plans can fail, with wisest speech

Of envoy's lips to further each?'

Thus Rma spoke: and Lakshman, taught

In all the art that utters thought,

To King Sgrva's learned spy

Thus made his eloquent reply:

'Full well we know the gifts that grace

Sugrva, lord of Vnar race,

And hither turn our wandering feet

That we that high-souled king may meet

So now our pleasant task shall be

To do the words he speaks by thee.'

His prudent speech the Vnar heard,

And all his heart with joy was stirred.

And hope that league with them would bring

Redress and triumph to his king.

p. 327

Footnotes

324:1
Sugrva, the ex-king of the Vnars, foresters, or monkeys, an exile from his home, wandering about the mountain Rishyamka with his four faithful ex-ministers.

324:2
The hermitage of the Saint Matauga which his curse prevented Bli, the present king of the Vnars, from entering.
The story is told at length in Canto XI.
of this Book.

324:
1b Hanumn, Sugrva's chief general, was the son of the God of Wind. See Book I, Canto Xvi.

324:
2b A range of hills in Malabar; the Western Ghats in the Deccan.

325:1
Vlmki makes the second vowel in this name long or short to suit the exigencies of the verse. Other Indian poets have followed his example, and the same licence will be used in this translation.

325:2 I
omit a recapitulatory and interpolated verse in a different metre, which is as follows:--Reverencing with the words, So be it, the speech of the greatly terrified and unequalled monkey king, the magnanimous Hanmn then went where (stood)
the very mighty Rma with Lakshman.

325:
1b The semi divine Hanuma'n posseses.
like the Gods and demons, the power of wearing all shapes at will, He is one of the "Kmarps".

Like Milton's good and bad angels

"as they please

They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size

Assume as likes them best, coudense or rare."

325:2b Himlaya is of course "par excellence"
the Monarch of mountains, but the complimentary title is frequently given to other hills as here to Malaya.

326:1
Twisted up in a matted coil as was the custom of ascetics.

326:2
The sun and the moon.

326:3
The rainbow.

326:
1b The Vedas are four in number, the Rich or Rig-veda, the Yajush or Yajur-veda;
the Sman or Sma-veda*, and the Atharvan or Atharva-veda. See p. 3.
Note.

326:2b The chest, the throat, and the head.

who sang kung fu fighting in kung fu panda| kung gusto may paraan kung ayaw may dahilan song
Home > Library > New > Anonymous > The Ramayana > Book Iv. Canto Ii. Sugr'iva's Alarm