{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry262.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry262.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry262.htm","text":"Reft of his love, the royal chief,\n Weighed down beneath his whelming grief,\n Desponding made his brother share\n His grievous burden of despair.\n Over his sinking bosom rolled\n The flood of sorrow uncontrolled.\n \u00a0\u00a0 And as he wept and sighed,\n In mournful accents faint and slow\n With words congenial to his woe,\n \u00a0\u00a0 To Lakshman thus he cried:\n 'Brother, I ween, beneath the sun,\n Of all mankind there lives not one\n So full of sin, whose hand has done\n \u00a0\u00a0 Such cursed deeds as mine.\n For my sad heart with misery bleeds,\n As, guerdon of those evil deeds,\n \n \n Still greater woe to woe succeeds\n \u00a0\u00a0 In never-ending line.\n A life of sin I freely chose,\n And from my past transgression flows\n A ceaseless flood of bitter woes\n \u00a0\u00a0 My folly to repay.\n The fruit of sin has ripened fast.\n Through many a sorrow have I passed,\n And now the crowning grief at last\n \u00a0\u00a0 Falls on my head to-day.\n From all my faithful friends I fled,\n My sire is numbered with the dead,\n My royal rank is forfeited,\n \u00a0\u00a0 My mother far away.\n These woes on which I sadly think\n Fill, till it raves above the brink,\n The stream of grief in which I sink,--\n \u00a0\u00a0 The flood which naught can stay.\n Ne'er, brother, ne'er have I complained;\n Though long by toil and trouble pained,\n Without a murmur I sustained\n \u00a0\u00a0 The woes of woodland life.\n But fiercer than the flames that rise\n When crackling wood the food supplies,--\n Flashing a glow through evening skies,--\n \u00a0\u00a0 This sorrow for my wife.\n Some cruel fiend has seized the prey\n And torn my trembling love away,\n While, as he bore her through the skies,\n She shrieked aloud with frantic cries,\n It tones of fear which, wild and shrill,\n Retained their native sweetness still.\n Ah me, that breast so soft and sweet,\n For sandal's precious perfume meet,\n Now all detained with dust and gore,\n Shall meet my fond caress no more.\n That face, whose lips with tones so clear\n Made pleasant music, sweet to hear,--\n With soft locks plaited o'er the brow,--\n Some giant's hand is on it now.\n It smiles not, us the dear light fails\n When R\u00e1hu's jaw the moon assails.\n Ah, my true love! that shapely neck\n She loved with fairest chains to deck,\n The cruel demons rend, and drain\n The lifeblood from each mangled vein.\n Ah, when the savage monsters came\n And dragged away the helpless dame,\n 'The lady of the long soft eye\n Called like a lamb with piteous cry.\n Beneath this rock, O Lakshman, see,\n My peerless consort sat with me,\n And gently talked to thee the while,\n Her sweet lips opening with a smile.\n Here is that fairest stream which she\n Loved ever, bright God\u00e1var\u00ed.\n Ne'er can the dame have passed this way:\n So far alone she would not stray,\n Nor has my darling, lotus-eyed,\n Sought lilies by the river's side,\n For without me she ne'er would go\n \n \n To streamlets where the wild flowers grow,\n Tell me not, brother, she has strayed\n To the dark forest's distant shade\n Where blooming boughs are gay and sweet,\n And bright birds love the cool retreat.\n Alone my love would never dare,--\n My timid love,--to wander there.\n \u00a0\u00a0 O Lord of Day whose eye sees all\n We act and plan, on thee I call:\n For naught is hidden from thy sight,--\n Great witness thou of wrong and right.\n Where is she, lost or torn away?\n Dispel my torturing doubt and say.\n And O thou Wind who blowest free,\n The worlds have naught concealed from thee.\n List to my prayer, reveal one trace\n Of her, the glory of her race.\n Say, is she stolen hence, or dead,\n Or do her feet the forest tread?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus with disordered senses, faint\n With woe he poured his sad complaint,\n And then, a better way to teach,\n Wise Lakshman spoke in seemly speech:\n 'Up, brother dear, thy grief subdue,\n With heart and soul thy search renew.\n When woes oppress and dangers threat\n Brave effort ne'er was fruitless yet.'\n He spoke, but R\u00e1ma gave no heed\n To valiant Lakshman's prudent rede.\n With double force the flood of pain\n Rushed o'er his yielding soul again.","title":"BOOK III: Canto LXIV.: Rama's Lament.","type":"page"}