सर्ग ५८

When Ráma’s deadly shaft had struck The giant in the seeming buck, The chieftain turned him from the place His homeward way again to trace. Then as he hastened onward, fain To look upon his spouse again, Behind him from a thicket nigh Rang out a jackal’s piercing cry. Alarmed he heard the startling shriek That raised his hair and dimmed his cheek, And all his heart was filled with doubt As the shrill jackal’s cry rang out: “Alas, some dire disaster seems Portended by the jackal’s screams. O may the Maithil dame be screened From outrage of each hungry fiend! Alas, if Lakshmaṇ chanced to hear That bitter cry of woe and fear What time Márícha, as he died, With voice that mocked my accents cried, Swift to my side the prince would flee And quit the dame to succour me. Too well I see the demon band The slaughter of my love have planned. Me far from home and Sítá’s view The seeming deer Márícha drew. He led me far through brake and dell Till wounded by my shaft he fell, And as he sank rang out his cry, “O save me, Lakshmaṇ, or I die.” May it be well with both who stayed In the great wood with none to aid, For every fiend is now my foe For Janasthán’s great overthrow, And many an omen seen to-day Has filled my heart with sore dismay.”

Such were the thoughts and sad surmise Of Ráma at the jackal’s cries, And all his heart within him burned As to his cot his steps he turned. He pondered on the deer that led His feet to follow where it fled, And sad with many a bitter thought His home in Janasthán he sought. His soul was dark with woe and fear When flocks of birds and troops of deer Move round him from the left, and raised Discordant voices as they gazed. The omens which the chieftain viewed The terror of his soul renewed, When lo, to meet him Lakshmaṇ sped With brows whence all the light had fled. Near and more near the princes came, Each brother’s heart and look the same; Alike on each sad visage lay The signs of misery and dismay, Then Ráma by his terror moved His brother for his fault reproved In leaving Sítá far from aid In the wild wood where giants strayed. Lakshmaṇ’s left hand he took, and then In gentle tones the prince of men, Though sharp and fierce their tenour ran, Thus to his brother chief began:

“O Lakshmaṇ, thou art much to blame Leaving alone the Maithil dame, And flying hither to my side: O, may no ill my spouse betide! But ah, I know my wife is dead, And giants on her limbs have fed, So strange, so terrible are all The omens which my heart appal. O Lakshmaṇ, may we yet return The safety of my love to learn. To find the child of Janak still Alive and free from scathe and ill! Each bird with notes of warning screams, Though the hot sun still darts his beams. The moan of deer, the jackal’s yell Of some o’erwhelming misery tell. O mighty brother, still may she, My princess, live from danger free! That semblance of a golden deer Allured me far away, I followed nearer and more near, And longed to take the prey. I followed where the quarry fled: My deadly arrow flew, And as the dying creature bled, The giant met my view. Great fear and pain oppress my heart That dreads the coming blow, And through my left eye keenly dart The throbs that herald woe. Ah Lakshmaṇ, all these signs dismay, My soul that sinks with dread, I know my love is torn away, Or, haply, she is dead.”