महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

55] Act III, The Shadow — Translation [—iii. 41ᶜ Sītā in excitement approaches [Rāma] and touches his heart and forehead. Vāsantī—Happily dear¹ Rāma has come to life again! Rāma—[This touch,] as if anointing with ambrosial anointments, both within and without, all the tissues of my body—this touch that has [just] brought me to life—once again, it has, all of a sudden, produced, through joy, an infatuation in me—[only] of a different kind. 40 With eyes still closed in joy. Friend Vāsantī! Here is a matter for rejoicing. Vāsantī—And what may it be? Rāma—What else, my friend? She has returned—the daughter of Janaka! Vāsantī—Why, my dear Rāma, where is she? Rāma, enjoying the felicitous touch—Look! Is not she just here in front? Vāsantī—Wherefore, my dear (ayi), [wherefore,] with these frightful excesses of thy ravings that pierce the very vitals, dost thou again [and again] burn me [in anguish], ill-starred that I am, and already burnt up with [the sorrow consequent upon] the sufferings of my dear friend [Sītā]? Sītā—I do wish to withdraw: but this my noble Lord's touch, gentle and cooling by reason of his enduring affection, has all of a sudden allayed even my long and cruel grief, and has held fast, as if with adamantine cement, [this] my moist and powerless hand, [causing it] to tremble in helplessness. Rāma—No: not ‘ravings’, my friend! That [hand,] begirt with bracelet, which formerly, at the time of marriage, I had held [in mine], and which, since then, through all that long time, had been familiar to me by its cooling and ambrosial touch—[touch] that was [once, alas!] mine for the asking— 41 a, b Sītā—Noble my Lord! Thou art [ever] the same—[then and] now! Rāma—that same hand of hers, resembling a tender stalk of lavalī but most happily compared [only] with her own other hand— that hand here I have grasped. 41 c, d Seizes it. Sītā—Oh, fie! Carried away by my noble Lord’s touch I have really committed a blunder! Rāma—Friend Vāsantī! With my eyes (indriya) closed in [the ecstasy of my] joy and in my [present] excited state I am [no longer] master of myself: Do you therefore hold her likewise. Vāsantī—Why! This is sheer madness! ¹ This is the first time in this Act that Vāsantī uses this familiar mode of address.