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

57] Act III, The Shadow — Translation [—iii. 46⁶ From here the enemy [Rāvaṇa], lifting up Sītā all blazing [with ire], the enemy—even like a [black] rain-cloud gleaming (antaḥ) with the tremulous flashes of lightning—rose up into the sky. 44 Sītā, in alarm—Noble my Lord! Our father [Jaṭāyu] is being killed— And he is carrying me too away! Save me! Rāma, swiftly rising—You wretch, you robber of father [Jaṭāyu's] life Where will you escape? Vāsantī—Why, King! You [are] the fire that has consumed the race of Demons: can there still exist any object for your [avenging] wrath? Sītā—Forsooth! I came near losing [all] my wits! Rāma—Much to the purpose indeed are these my [useless] rantings now! Remedies being available, through the exploits of heroes it [that earlier separation] became [for them] a source of constant and engrossing occupation, and for the world a theme for its wondering admiration: such was my [earlier] separation from my fair-eyed [Sītā]; and it did indeed come to an end with the slaying of my enemy [Rāvaṇa]: but how am I to endure, all in silence, this [my present separation,] which has no remedies and knows no end? 45 Sītā—Knows no end?—then alas for me! Rāma—Woe and alas! Where even my friendship with the mighty King of the Monkeys [Sugrīva] avails not—where [equally] unavailing is the valour of the Monkeys themselves as well as the talents of even a Jāmbavant¹—where even the son of the Wind [Māruti] is denied access, and where even Nala,² the son of the Architect of the universe, is unable to construct a path—where even the arrows of the son of Sumitrā [Lakshmaṇa] cannot penetrate: in what region then [so inaccessible] art thou, my dearest? 46 Sītā—So [a time has come when] I must prize more highly my earlier separation! Rāma—Dear Vāsantī, nothing but grief can the sight of Rāma now bring to his friends. How long then must I keep you weeping? Permit me to go, therefore. Sītā, leaning upon Tamasā in agony and dejection—Honoured Tamasā! [Look!] My noble Lord is going away! Tamasā—Compose thyself, child, compose thyself. Let us then, likewise, ¹ Did signal service to Rāma first during the ² Constructed the bridge between India and expedition in search of Sītā, and later in Laṅkā (Ceylon). the war at Laṅkā. 8 [H.O.S. 21]