{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry260.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry260.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry260.htm","text":"When all the toil and search was vain\n He sought, his leafy home again.\n 'Twas empty still: all scattered lay\n The seats of grass in disarray.\n He raised his shapelv arms on high\n And spoke aloud with bitter cry:\n 'Where is the Ma\u00edthil dame?' he said,\n 'O, whither has my darling fled?\n Who can have borne away my dame,\n Or feasted on her tender frame?\n If, S\u00edt\u00e1 hidden by some tree,\n Thou joyest still to mock at me,\n Cease, cease thy cruel sport, and take\n Compassion, or my heart will break.\n Bethink thee, love, the gentle fawns\n With whom thou playest on the lawns,\n Impatient for thy coming wait\n With streaming eyes disconsolate.\n Reft of my love. I needs must go\n Hence to the shades weighed down by woe.\n The king our sire will see me there,\n And cry, 'O perjured R\u00e1ma, where.\n Where is thy faith, that thou canst speed\n From exile ere the time decreed?\n \u00a0\u00a0 Ah S\u00edt\u00e1, whither hast thou fled\n And left me here disquieted,\n A hapless mourner, reft of hone.\n Too feeble with my woe to cope?\n E'en thus indignant Glory flies\n The wretch who stains his soul with lies.\n If thou, my love, art lost to view,\n I in my woe must perish too.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus Rama by big grief distraught\n Wept for the wife he vainly sought.\n And Lakshman whose fraternal breast\n Longed for his weal, the chief addressed\n \n \n Whose soul gave way beneath the pain\n When all his eager search was vain.\n Like some great elephant who stands\n Sinking upon the treacherous sands:\n 'Not yet, O wisest chief, despair;\n Renew thy toil with utmost care.\n This noble hill where trees are green\n Has many a cave and dark ravine.\n The Maithil lady day by day\n Delighted in the woods to stray.\n Deep in the grove she wanders still.\n Or walks by blossom-covered rill,\n Or fish-loved river stealing through\n Tall clusters of the dark bamboo.\n Or else the dame with arch design\n To prove thy mood, O Prince, and mine,\n Far in some sheltering thicket lies\n To frighten ere she meet our eyes.\n Then come, renew thy labour, trace\n The lady to her lurking-place,\n And search the wood from side to aide\n To know where Sit\u00e1 loves to bide.\n Collect thy thoughts, O royal chief,\n Nor yield to unavailing grief.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus Lakshman, by attention stirred,\n To fresh attempts his brother spurred,\n And R\u00e1ma, as he ceased, began\n With Lakshman's aid each spot to scan.\n In eager search their way they took\n Through wood, o'er hill, by pool and brook,\n They roamed each mount, nor spared to seek\n On ridge and crag and towering peak.\n They sought the dame in every spot;\n But all in vain; they found her not.\n Above, below, on every side\n They ranged the hill, and R\u00e1ma cried,\n 'O Lakshman, O my brother still\n No trace of S\u00edt\u00e1 on'the hill!'\n Then Lakshman as he roamed the wood\n Beside his glorious brother stood,\n And while fierce grief his bosom burned\n This answer to the chief retained:\n 'Thou, R\u00e1ma, after toil and pain\n Wilt meet the Maithil dame again,\n As Vishnu, Buli's might subdued,\n His empire of the earth renewed.'\u00a01\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then R\u00e1ma cried in mournful tone,\n His spirit by his woe o'erthrown;\n 'The wood is searched from side to side,\n No distant spot remains untried,\n No lilied pool, no streamlet where\n The lotus buds are fresh and fair.\n Our eyes have searched the hill with all\n His caves and every waterfall,--\n But ah, not yet I find my wife,\n More precious than the breath of life.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 As thus he mourned his vanished dame\n A mighty trembling seized his frame,\n \n \n And by o'erpowering grief assailed,\n His troubled senses reeled and failed.\n Too great to bear his misery grew,\n And many a long hot sigh he drew,\n Then as he wept and sobbed and sighed,\n \"O Sita, O my love!' he cried.\n Then Lakshman, joining palm to palm,\n Tried every art his woe to calm.\n But R\u00e1ma in his anguish heard\n Or heeded not one soothing word.\n Still for his spouse he mourned, and shrill\n Rang out his lamentation still,\n \n \n \n \n302:1 See Book I. Canto XXXI.","title":"BOOK III: Canto LXII.: R\u00e1ma's Lament.","type":"page"}