{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry256.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry256.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry256.htm","text":"When R\u00e1ma's deadly shaft had struck\n The giant in the seeming buck.\n The chieftain turned him from the place\n His homeward way again to trace.\n Then as he hastened onward, fain\n To look upon his spouse again,\n Behind him from a thicket nigh\n Rang out a jackal's piercing cry.\n Alarmed he heard the startling shriek\n That raised his hair and dimmed his cheek,\n And all his heart was filled with doubt\n As the shrill jackal's cry rung out:\n 'Alas, some dire disaster seems\n Portended by the jackal's screams.\n O may the Maitil dame be screened\n From outrage of each hungry fiend!\n \n \n Alas, if Lakshman chanced to hear\n That bitter cry of woe and fear\n What time M\u00e1r\u00edcha, as he died,\n With voice that mocked my accents cried,\n Swift to my side the prince would flee\n And quit the dame to succour me.\n Too well I see the demon band\n The slaughter of my love have planned.\n Me far from home and S\u00edt\u00e1's view\n The seeming deer M\u00e1r\u00edcha drew.\n He led me far through brake and dell\n Till wounded by my shaft he fell,\n And as he sank rang out his cry,\n 'O save me, Lakshman, or I die.'\n May it be well with both who stayed\n In the great wood with none to aid,\n For every fiend is now my foe\n For Janasth\u00e1n's great overthrow,\n And many an omen seen to-day\n Has filled my heart with sore dismay.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Such were the thoughts and sad surmise\n Of R\u00e1ma at the jackal's cries,\n And all his heart within him burned\n As to his cot his steps he turned.\n He pondered on the deer that led\n His feet to follow where it fled,\n And sad with many a bitter thought\n His home in Janasth\u00e1n he sought.\n His soul was dark with woe and fear\n When flocks of birds and troops of deer\n Move round him from the left, and raised\n Discordant voices as they gazed.\n The omens which the chieftain viewed\n The terror of his soul renewed,\n When lo, to meet him Lakshman sped\n With brows whence all the light had fled.\n Near and more near the princes came,\n Each brother's heart and look the same;\n Alike on each sad visage lay\n The signs of misery and dismay,\n Then R\u00e1ma by his terror moved\n His brother for his fault reproved\n In leaving S\u00edt\u00e1 far from aid\n In the wild wood where giants strayed.\n Lakshman's left hand be took, and then\n In gentle tones the prince of men,\n Though sharp and fierce their tenour ran,\n Thus to his brother chief began:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'O Lakshman, thou art much to blame\n Leaving alone the Ma\u00edthil dame,\n And flying hither to my side:\n O, may no ill my spouse betide!\n But ah. I know my wife is dead,\n And giants on her limbs have fed,\n So strange, so terrible are all\n The omens which my heart appal.\n O Lakshman, may we yet return\n The safety of my love to learn.\n To find the child of Janak still\n Alive and free from scathe and ill!\n Each bird with notes of warning screams,\n \n \n Though the hot sun still darts his beams.\n The moan of deer, the jackal's yell\n Of some o'erwhelming misery tell.\n O mighty brother, still may she.\n My princess, live from danger free!\n That semblance of a golden deer\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Allured me far away,\n \u00a0\u00a0 I followed nearer and more near,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And longed to take the prey.\n \u00a0\u00a0 I followed where the quarry fled:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My deadly arrow flew,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And as the dying creature bled,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The giant met my view.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Great tear and pain oppress my heart\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That dreads the coming blow,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And through my left eye keenly dart\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The throbs that herald woe.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Ah Lakshman, all these signs dismay,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My soul that sinks, with dread,\n \u00a0\u00a0 I know my love is torn away,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or, haply, she is dead.'","title":"BOOK III: Canto LVIII.: The Brothers' Meeting.","type":"page"}