Home > Library > New > Anonymous > The Ramayana > Book Vi. Canto Xxiii. The Omens

Book Vi. Canto Xxiii. The Omens

Canto Xxiii.: The Omens.


Then Rma, peerless in the skill

That marks each sign of good and ill,

Strained his dear brother to his breast,

And thus with prudent words addressed:

'Now, Lakshman, by the water's side

In fruitful groves the host divide,

That warriors of each woodland race

May keep their own appointed place.

Dire is the danger: loss of friends,

Of Vnars and of bears, impends.

Distained with dust the breezes blow,

And earth is shaken from below.

The tall hills rock from foot to crown,

And stately trees come toppling down.

In threatening shape, with voice of fear,

The clouds like cannibals appear,

And rain in fitful torrents, red

With sanguinary drops, is shed.

Long streaks of lurid light invest

The evening skies from east to west.

And from the sun at times a ball

Of angry fire is seen to fall.

From every glen and brake is heard

The boding voice of beast and bird:

From den and lair night-prowlers run

And shriek against the falling sun.

Up springs the moon, but hot and red

Kills the sad night with woe and dread;

No gentle lustre, but the gloom.

That heralds universal doom.

A cloud of dust and vapour mars

The beauty of the evening stars,

And wild and fearful is the sky

As though the wreck of worlds were nigh.

Around our heads in boding flight

Wheel hawk and vulture, crow and kite;

And every bird of happy note

Shrieks terror from his altered throat.

Sword, spear and shaft shall strew the plain

Dyed red with torrents of the slain.

To-day the Vnar troops shall close

Around the city of our foes.'
polyglot bible| polyglot bible
Home > Library > New > Anonymous > The Ramayana > Book Vi. Canto Xxiii. The Omens