{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry247.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry247.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry247.htm","text":"The R\u00e1kshas monarch, thus addressed,\n His hands a while together pressed,\n And straight before her startled eyes\n Stood monstrous in his giant size.\n Then to the lady, with the lore\n Of eloquence, he spoke once more:\n 'Thou scarce,' he cried, 'hast heard aright\n The glories of my power and might,\n I borne sublime in air can stand\n And with these arms upheave the land,\n Drink the deep flood of Ocean dry\n And Death with conquering force defy.\n Pierce the great sun with furious dart\n And to her depths cleave earth apart.\n See, thou whom love and beauty blind,\n I wear each form as wills my mind.\"\n \u00a0\u00a0 As thus he spake in burning ire,\n His glowing eyes were red with fire.\n His gentle garb aside was thrown\n And all his native shape was shown.\n Terrific, monstrous, wild, and dread\n As the dark God who rules the dead,\n His fiery eyes in fury rolled,\n His limbs were decked with glittering gold.\n Like some dark cloud the monster showed,\n And his fierce breast with fury glowed.\n The ten-faced rover of the night,\n With twenty arms exposed to sight,\n His saintly guise aside had laid\n And all his giant height displayed.\n \n \n Attired in robes of crimson dye\n He stood and watched with angry eye\n The lady in her bright array\n Resplendent as the dawn of day\n When from the east the sunbeams break,\n And to the dark-haired lady spake:\n 'If thou would call that lord thine own\n Whose fame in every world is known,\n Look kindly on my love, and be\n Bride of a consort meet for thee.\n With me let blissful years be spent,\n For ne'er thy choice shalt thou repent.\n No deed of mine shall e'er displease\n My darling as she lives at ease.\n Thy love for mortal man resign,\n And to a worthier lord incline.\n Ah foolish lady, seeming wise\n In thine own weak and partial eyes,\n By what fair graces art thou held\n To R\u00e1ma from his realm expelled?\n Misfortunes all his life attend.\n And his brief days are near their end.\n Unworthy prince, infirm of mind!\n A woman spoke and he resigned\n His home and kingdom and withdrew\n From troops of friends and retinue.\n And sought this forest dark and dread\n By savage beasts inhabited.'\n Thus R\u00e1van urged the lady meet\n For love, whose words were soft and sweet.\n Near and more near the giant pressed\n As love's hot fire inflamed his breast.\n The leader of the giant crew\n His arm around the lady threw:\n Thus Budha \u00a01 with ill-omened might\n Steals Rohini's delicious light.\n One hand her glorious tresses grasped,\n One with its ruthless pressure clasped\n The body of his lovely prize,\n The Maithil dame with lotus eyes.\n The silvan Gods in wild alarm\n Marked his huge teeth and ponderous arm,\n And from that Death-like presence fled,\n Of mountain size and towering head.\n Then seen was R\u00e1van's magic car\n Aglow with gold which blazed afar,--\n The mighty car which asses drew\n Thundering as it onward flew.\n He spared not harsh rebuke to chide\n The lady as she moaned and cried,\n Then with his arm about her waist\n His captive in the car he placed.\n In vain he threatened: long and shrill\n Rang out her lamentation still,\n O R\u00e1ma! which no fear could stay:\n But her dear lord was far away\n Then rose the fiend, and toward the skies\n Bore his poor helpless struggling prize:\n \n \n Hurrying through the air above\n The dame who loathed his proffered love\n So might a soaring eagle bear\n A serpent's consort through the air.\n As on he bore her through the sky\n She shrieked aloud her bitter cry.\n As when some wretch's lips complain\n In agony of maddening pain;\n 'O Lakshman, thou whose joy is still\n To do thine eider brother's will,\n This fiend, who all disguises wears,\n From R\u00e1ma's side his darling tears.\n Thou who couldst leave bliss, fortune, all,\n Yea life itselt at duty's call,\n Dost thou not see this outrage done\n To hapless me, O Raghu's son?\n 'Tis thine, O victor of the foe,\n To bring the haughtiest spirit low,\n How canst thou such an outrage see\n And let the guilty fiend go free?\n Ah, seldom in a moment's time\n Comes bitter fruit of sin and crime,\n But in the day of harvest pain\n Comes like the ripening of the grain.\n So thou whom fate and folly lead\n To ruin for this guilty deed,\n Shalt die by R\u00e1ma's arm ere long\n A dreadful death for hideous wrong.\n Ah, too successful in their ends\n Are Queen Kaikey\u00ed and her friends,\n When virtuous R\u00e1ma, dear to fame,\n Is mourning for his ravished dame.\n Ah me, ah me! a long farewell\n To lawn and glade and forest dell\n In Janasth\u00e1n's wild region, where\n The Cassia trees are bright and fair\n With all your tongues to R\u00e1ma say\n That R\u00e1van bears his wife away.\n Farewell, a long farewell to thee,\n O pleasant stream God\u00e1vari,\n Whose rippling waves are ever stirred\n By many a glad wild water bird!\n All ye to R\u00e1ma's ear relate\n The giant's deed and S\u00edt\u00e1's fata.\n O all ye Gods who love this ground\n Where trees of every leaf abound,\n Tell R\u00e1ma I am stolen hence,\n I pray you all with reverence.\n On all the living things beside\n That these dark boughs and coverts hide,\n Ye flocks of birds ye troops of deer,\n I call on you my prayer to hear.\n All we to R\u00e1ma's ear proclaim\n That R\u00e1van tears away his dame\n Witn forceful arms--his darling wife,\n Dearer to R\u00e1ma than his life.\n O, if he knew I dwelt in hell,\n My mighty lord, I know full well,\n Would bring me, conqueror, back to-day,\n Though Yama's self reclaimed his prey.'\n Thus from the air the lady sent\n \n \n With piteous voice her last lament,\n And as she wept she chanced to see\n The vulture on a lofty tree.\n As R\u00e1van bore her swiftly by,\n On the dear bird she bent her eye,\n And with a voice which woe made faint\n Renewed to him her wild complaint:\n 'O see, the king who rules the race\n Of giants, cruel, fierce and base,\n R\u00e1van the spoiler bears me hence\n The helpless prey of violence.\n This fiend who roves in midnight shade\n By thee, dear bird, can ne'er be stayed,\n For he is armed and fierce and strong\n Triumphant in the power to wrong.\n For thee remains one only task,\n To do, kind friend, the thing I ask.\n To R\u00e1ma's ear by thee be borne\n How S\u00edt\u00e1 from her home is torn,\n And to the valiant Lakshman tell\n The giant's deed and what befell.'\n \n \n \n \n287:1 Mercury: to be carefully distinguished hum Buddha.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XLIX.: The Rape of Sit\u00e1.","type":"page"}