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Book V. Canto Xiii. Despair And Hope

Canto Xiii.: Despair And Hope.


Then rapid as the lightning's flame

From Rvan's halls the Vnar came

Each lingering hope was cold and dead,

And thus within his heart he said:

'Alas, my fruitless search is done:

Long have I toiled for Raghu's son;

And yet with all my care have seen

No traces of the ravished queen.

It may be, while the giant through

The lone air with his captive flew,

The Maithil lady, tender-souled,

Slipped struggling from the robber's hold,

And the wild sea is rolling now

O'er St of the beauteous brow.

Or did she perish of alarm

When circled by the monster's arm?

Or crushed, unable to withstand

The pressure of that monstrous hand?

Or when she spurned his suit with scorn,

Her tender limbs were rent and torn.

And she, her virtue unsubdued,

Was slaughtered for the giant's food.

Shall I to Raghu's son relate

His well-beloved consort's fate,

My crime the same if I reveal

The mournful story or conceal?

If with no happier tale to tell

I seek our mountain citadel,

How shall I face our lord the king,

And meet his angry questioning?

How shall I greet my friends, and brook

The muttered taunt, the scornful look?

How to the son of Raghu go

And kill him with my tale of woe?

For sure the mournful tale I bear

Will strike him dead with wild despair.

And Lakshman ever fond and true,

Will, undivided, perish too.

Bharat will learn his brother's fate,

And die of grief disconsolate,

And sad Satrughna with a cry

Of anguish on his corpse will die.

Our king Sugrvar found;

True to each bond in honour bound.

Will mourn the pledge he vainly gave,

And die with him he could not save.

Then Rum his devoted wife

For her dead lord will leave her life,

And Tra, widowed and forlorn,

Will die in anguish, sorrow-worn.

On Angad too the blow will fall

Killing the hope and joy of all.

The ruin of their prince and king

The Vnarsls with woe will wring,

And each, overwhelmed with dark despair,

Will beat his head and rend his hair.

Each, graced and honoured long, will miss

His careless life of easy bliss,

In happy troops will play no more

On breezy rock and shady shore,

But with his darling wife and child

Will seek the mountain top, and wild

With hopeless desolation, throw

Himself, his wife, and babe, below.

All no: unless the dame I find

I ne'er will meet my Vnar,

Here rather in some distant dell

A lonely hermit will I dwell,

Where roots and berries will supply

My humble wants until I die;

Or on the shore will raise a pyre

And perish in the kindled fire.

Or I will strictly fast until

With slow decay my life I kill,

And ravening dogs and birds of air

The limbs of Hanumnl tear.

Here will I die, but never bring

Destruction on my race and king.

But still unsearched one grove I see

With many a bright As'oka tree.

There will I enter in, and through

The tangled shade my search renew.

Be glory to the host on high,

The Sun and Moon who light the sky,

The Vasus 1 and the Maruts' 2 train,

dityas 3 and the As'vins 4 twain.

So may I win success, and bring

The lady back with triumphing,'
egyptian book of the dead com| trio mediaeval folk song
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