{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry377.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry377.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry377.htm","text":"'Thou bringest me,' she cried again,\n 'A mingled draught of bliss and pain\n Bliss, that he wears me in his heart,\n Pain, that he wakes and weeps apart,\n O, see how Fate is king of all,\n Now lifts us high, now bids us fall,\n And leads a captive bound with cord\n The meanest slave, the proudest lord,\n Thus even now Fate's stern decree\n Has struck with grief my lord and me.\n Say, how shall R\u00e1ma reach the shore\n Of sorrow's waves that rise and roar,\n A shipwrecked sailor, wellnigh drowned\n In the wild sea that foams around?\n When will he smite the demon down,\n Lay low in dust the giants' town,\n And, glorious from his foes' defeat,\n His wife, his long-lost S\u00edt\u00e1, meet?\n Go, bid him speed to smite his foes\n Before the year shall reach its close.\n Ten months are fled but two remain,\n Then R\u00e1van's captive must be slain.\n Oft has Vibh\u00edshan, \u00a01b just and wise,\n Besought him to restore his prize.\n But deaf is R\u00e1van's senseless ear:\n His brother's rede he will not hear.\n Vibh\u00edshan's daughter \u00a02b loves me well:\n From her I learnt the tale I tell,\n Avindhva \u00a03b prudent, just, and old,\n The giant's fall has oft foretold;\n But Fate impels him to despise\n His word on whom he most relies.\n In R\u00e1ma's love I rest secure,\n For my fond heart is true and pure,\n And him, my noblest lord, I deem\n In valour, power, and might supreme.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 As from her eyes the waters ran,\n The V\u00e1nar chief again began:\n 'Yea, R\u00e1ma, when he hears my tale,.\n Will with our hosts these walls assail,\n Or I myself, O Queen, this day\n Will bear thee from the fiend away,\n Will lift thee up, and take thee hence\n To him thy refuge and defence;\n Will take thee in my arms, and flee;\n To R\u00e1ma far beyond the sea;\n Will place thee on Prasravan hill\n Where Raghu's son is waiting still.'\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0 'How canst thou bear me hence?' she cried,\n 'The way is long, the sea is wide.\n To bear my very weight would be\n A task too hard for one like thee.'\u00a01\n \u00a0\u00a0 Swift rose before her startled eyes\n The V\u00e1nar in his native size,\n Like Mandar's hill or Meru's height,\n Encircled with a blaze of light.\n 'O come,' he cried, 'thy fears dispel,\n Nor doubt that I will bear thee well.\n Come, in my strength and care confide,\n And sit in joy by R\u00e1ma's side.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Again she spake: 'I know thee now,\n Brave, resolute, and strong art thou;\n In glory like the Lord of Fire\n With storm-swift feet which naught may tire\n But yet with thee I may not fly:\n For, borne so swiftly through the sky,\n Mine eyes would soon grow faint and dim,\n My dizzy brain would reel and swim,\n My yielding arms relax their hold,\n And I in terror uncontrolled\n Should fall into the raging sea\n Where hungry sharks would feed on me.\n Nor can I touch, of free accord,\n The limbs of any save my lord.\n If, by the giant forced away,\n In his enfolding arms I lay,\n Not mine, O V\u00e1nar, was the blame;\n What could I do, a helpless dame?\n Go, to my lord my message bear,\n And bid him end my long despair.'\n \n \n \n \n415:1b Vibh\u00edshan is the wicked R\u00e1van's good brother.\n415:2b Her name is Kal\u00e1, or in the Bengal recension Nand\u00e1.\n415:3b One of R\u00e1van's chief councillors.","title":"BOOK V: Canto XXXVII.: S\u00edt\u00e1's Speech.","type":"page"}