The Death of Jatáyus.

CANTO LXIX.: THE DEATH OF JATÁYUS.

As Ráma viewed with heart-felt yain
The vulture whom the fiend had slain,
In words with tender love impressed
His brother chief he thus addressed:
   'This royal bird with faithful thought
For my advantage strove and fought.
Slain by the fiend in mortal strife
For me he yields his noble life.
See, Lakshman, how his wounds have bled;
His struggling breath will soon have fled.
Faint is his voice, and near to die,
He scarce can lift his trembling eye.
Jatáyus, if thou still can speak,
Give, give the answer that I seek.
The fate of ravished Sítá tell,
And how thy mournful chance befell.
Say why the giant stole my dame:
What have I done that he could blame?
What fault in me has Rávan seen
That he should rob me of my queen?
How looked the lady's moon-bright cheek?
What were the words she found to speak?
His strength, his might, his deeds declare:
And tell the form he loves to wear.
To all my questions make reply:
Where does the giant's dwelling lie?'
   The noble bird his glances bent
On Ráma as he made lament,
And in low accents faint and weak
With anguish thus began to speak.
'Fierce Rávan, king of giant race,
Stole Sítá from thy dwelling-place.
He calls his magic art to aid
With wind and cloud and gloomy shade.
When in the fight my power was spent
My wearied wings he cleft and rent.
Then round the dame his arms he threw,
And to the southern region flew.
O Raghu's son. I gasp for breath,
My swimming sight is dim in death.
Even now before my vision pass
Bright trees of * with hair of grass,
*
Brings on the thief a flood of woe
The giant in his haste *

'Twas Vinda's hour,  ¹ or heeded not.
Those robbed at such a time obtain
Their plundered store and wealth again.
He, like a fish that takes the bait,
In briefest time shall meet his fate.
Now be thy troubled heart controlled
And for thy lady's loss consoled.
For thou wilt slay the fiend in fight
And with thy dame have new delight.'
   With senses clear, though sorely tried,
The royal vulture thus replied,
While as he sank beneath his pain
Forth rushed the tide of blood again.
'Him,  ² brother of the Lord of Gold,
Vis'ravas' self begot of old.'
Thus spoke the bird, and stained with gore
Resigned the breath that came no more.
   'Speak, speak again!' thus Ráma cried,
With reverent palm to palm applied,
But from the frame the spirit fled
And to the skiey regions sped.
The breath of life had passed away.
Stretched on the ground the body lay.
   When Rama saw the vulture lie,
Hupe as a hill, with darksome eye,
With many a poignant woe distressed
His brother chief he thus addressed:
'Amid these haunted shades content
Full many a year this bird has spent.
His life in home of giants passed,
In Dandak wood he dies at last.
The years in lengthened course have fled
Untroubled o'er the vulture's head,
And now he lies in death, for none
The stern decrees of Fate may shun.
See, Lakshman, how the vulture fell
While for my sake he battled well.
And strove to free with onset bold
My Sítá from the giant's hold.
Supreme amid the vulture kind
His ancient rule the bird resigned.
And conquered in tho fruitless strife
Gave for my sake his noble life.
O Lakshman, many a time we see
Great souls who keep the law's decree,
With whom the weak sure refuge find,
In creatures of inferior kind.
The kiss of her, my darling queen,
Strikes with a pang less fiercely keen
Than now this slaughtered bird to see
Who nobly fought and died for me.
As Das'aratha, good and great,
Was glorious in his high estate,
Honoured by all to all endeared,
So was this royal bird revered.
Bring fuel for the funeral site:
These hands the solemn fire shall light

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And on the burning pyre shall lay
The bird who died for me to-day.
Now on the gathered wood shall lie
The lord of all the birds that fly,
And I will burn with honours due
My champion whom the giant slew.
O royal bird of noblest heart,
Graced with all funeral rites depart
To bright celestial seats above,
Rewarded for thy faithful love.
Dwell in thy happy home with those
Whose constant fires of worship rose.
Live blest amid the unyielding brave,
And those who land in largess gave.
   Sore grief upon his bosom weighed
As on the pyre the bird he laid,
And bade the kindled flame ascend
To burn the body of his friend.
Then with his brother by his side
The hero to the forest hied.
There many a stately deer he slew.
The flesh around the bird to strew.
The venison into balls he made.
And on fair grass before him laid.
Then that the parted soul might rise
And find free passage to the skies,
Each solemn word and text he said
Which Brahmans utter o'er the dead.
Then hastening went the princely pair
To bright Godayaní, and there
Libations of the stream they poured
In honour of the vulture lord,
With solemn ritual to the slain,
As scripture's holy texts ordain.
Thus offerings to the bird they gave
And bathed their bodies in the wave,
   The vulture monarch having wrought
   A hard and glorious feat,
Honoured by Ráma sage in thought,
   Soared to his blissful seat.
The brothers, when each rite was paid
   To him of birds supreme,
Their hearts with new-found comfort stayed,
   And turned them from the stream.
Like soveriegns of celestial race
   Within the wood they came,
Each pondering the means to trace,
   The captor of the dame.

Footnotes

309:1 From the *

309:2 Rávan