The Brothers' Meeting.

CANTO LVIII.: THE BROTHERS' MEETING.

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 rung out:
'Alas, some dire disaster seems
Portended by the jackal's screams.
O may the Maitil dame be screened
From outrage of each hungry fiend!

p. 298

Alas, if Lakshman 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, Lakshman, 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 Lakshman 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.
Lakshman's left hand be took, and then
In gentle tones the prince of men,
Though sharp and fierce their tenour ran,
Thus to his brother chief began:
   'O Lakshman, thou art much to blame
Leaving alone the Maíthil 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 Lakshman, 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 tear and pain oppress my heart
     That dreads the coming blow,
   And through my left eye keenly dart
     The throbs that herald woe.
   Ah Lakshman, all these signs dismay,
     My soul that sinks, with dread,
   I know my love is torn away,
     Or, haply, she is dead.'