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Book Iv. Canto Xxx. R'ama's Lament

Canto Xxx.: Rma'S Lament.


But Rma in the autumn night

Stood musing on the mountain height.

While grief and love that scorned control

Shook with wild storms the hero's soul.

Clear was the sky, without a cloud

The glory of the moon to shroud.

And bright with purest silver shone

Each hill the soft beams looked upon,

He knew Sugriva's heart was bent

On pleasure, gay and negligent.

He thought on Janak's child forlorn

From his fond arms for ever torn.

He mourned occasion slipping by,

And faint with anguish heaved each sigh

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He sat where many a varied streak

Of rich ore marked the mountain peak.

He raised his eyes the skv to view.

And to his love his sad thoughts flew.

He. heard the Sras cry, and faint

With sorrow poured his love-born plaint:

She, she who mocked the softest tone

Of wild birds' voices with her own,--

Where strays she now, my love who played

So happy in our hermit shade '

How can my absent love behold

The bright trees with their flowers of gold,

And a11 their gleaming glory see

With eyes that vainly look for me?

How is it with my darling when

From the deep tangles of the glen

Float carols of each bird elate

With rapture singing to his mate?

In vain my weary glances rove

From lake to hill, from stream to grove:

I find no rapture in the scene,

And languish fur my fawn-eyed queen.

Ah, does strong love with wild unrest,

Born no the autumn, stir her breast?

And does the gentle lady pine

Till her bright eyes shall look in mine?'

Thus Raghu's son in piteous tone,

O'erwhelmed with sorrow, made his moan.

E'en as the bird that drinks the rains 1

To Indra thousand-eyed complains.

Then Lakshman who had wandered through

The copses where the berries grew,

Returning to the cavern found

His brother chief* in sorrow drowned,

And pitying the woes that broke

The spirit, of the hero spoke:

'Why east thy strength of soul away,

And weakly yield to passion's sway?

Arise, my brother, do and dare

Ere action perish in despair.

Refill the firmness of thy heart,

And nerve thee for a hero's part.

Whose is the hand unscathed to sieze

The red flame quickened by the breeze?

Where is the foe will dare to wrong

Or keep the Maithil lady long?'

Then with pale lips that sorrow dried

The son of Raghu thus replied:

Lord Indra thousand-eyed, has sent

The sweet rain from the firmament,

Sees the rich promise of the grain,

And turns him to his rest again.

The clouds with voices loud and deep,

Veiling each tree upon the steep,

Up on the thirsty earth have shed

Their precious burden and are fled.

Now in kings' hearts ambition glows:

They rush to battle with their foes; 1b

But in Sugrva's sloth I see

No care for deeds of chivalry.

See, Lakshman, on each breezy height

A thousand autumn blooms are bright.

See how the wings of wild swans gleam

On every islet of the stream.

Four months of flood and rain are past:

A hundred years they seemed to last

To me whom toil and trouble tried,

My Sit severed from my side.

She, gentlest woman, weak and young,

Still to her lord unwearied clung.

Still by the exile's side she stood

In the wild ways of Dandak wood,

Like a fond bird disconsolate

If parted from her darling mate.

Sugrva, lapped in soft repose.

Untouched by pity for my woes,

Scorns the poor exile, dispossessed,

By Rvan's mightier arm oppressed,

The wretch who comes to sue and pray

From his lost kingdom far away.

Hence falls on me the Vnar's scorn,

A suitor friendless and forlorn.

The time is come: with heedless eye

He sees the hour of action fly,--

Unmindful, now his hopes succeed,

Of promise made in stress of need.

Go seek him sunk in bliss and sloth,

Forgetful of his royal oath,

And as mine envoy thus upbraid

The monarch for his help delayed:

'Vile is the wretch who will not pay

The favour of an earlier day,

Hope in the supplicant's breast awakes,

And then his plighted promise breaks.

Noblest, mid all of women born,

Who keeps the words his lips have sworn.

Yea, if those words be good or ill.

Maintains his faith unbroken still.

The *ss who forget to aid

The friend who helped them when they prayed,

Dishonoured in their death shall lie,

And dogs shall pass their corpses by.

Sure thou wouldst see my strained arm hold

My bow of battle backed with gold,

Wouldst gaze upon its awful from

Like lightning flashing through the storm,

And hear the clanging bowstring loud

As thunder from a labouring cloud

His valour and his strength I know:

But pleasure's sway now sinks them low

With thee, my brother, for ally

That strength and valour I defy

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He promised, when the rains should end,

The succour of his arm to lend.

Those months are past: he dares forget.

And, lapped in pleasure, slumbers yet.

No thought disturbs his careless breast

For us impatient and distressed.

And, while we sadly wait and pine,

Girt by his lords he quaffs the wine.

Go, brother, go, his palace seek,

And boldly to Sugrva speak.

Thus give the listless king to know

What waits him if my anger glow:

Still open, to the gloomy God,

Lies the sad path that Bli trod.

'Still to thy plighted word be true,

Lest thou, O King, that path pursue.

I launched the shaft I pointed well.

And Bli, only Bli, fell.

But, if from truth thou dare to stray,

Both thee and thine this hand shall slay.'

Thus be the Vnar king addressed,

Then add thyself what seems the best.

Footnotes

360:1
The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and west.

361:1
The "Chtake, Cualus Melanoleucus",
is supposed to drink nothing but the water for the clouds.

361:
1b The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased.
the apostolic bible polyglot and kjv| the apostolic bible polyglot
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