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Rabindranath Tagore (trans.) >> The King of the Dark Chamber
SURANGAMA. To tell you the truth, Queen, I could not say well
what he is like. No--he is not what men call handsome.
SUDARSHANA. You don't say so? Not handsome!
SURANGAMA. No, my Queen, he is not handsome. To call him
beautiful would be to say far too little about him.
SUDARSHANA. All your words are like that--dark, strange, and
vague. I cannot understand what you mean.
SURANGAMA. No, I will not call him handsome. And it is because
he is not beautiful that he is so wonderful, so superb, so
miraculous!
SUDARSHANA. I do not quite understand you--though I like to hear
you talk about him. But I must see him at any cost. I do not
even remember the day when I was married to him. I have heard
mother say that a wise man came before my marriage and said, "He
who will wed your daughter is without a second on this earth."
How often have I asked her to describe his appearance to me, but
she only answers vaguely, and says she cannot say--she saw him
through a veil, faintly and obscurely. But if he is the best
among men, how can I sit still without seeing him?
SURANGAMA. Do you not feel a faint breeze blowing?
SUDARSHANA. A breeze? Where?
SURANGAMA. Do you not smell a soft perfume?
SUDARSHANA. No, I don't.
SURANGAMA. The large door has opened ... he is coming; my King
is coming in.
SUDARSHANA. How can you perceive when he comes?
SURANGAMA. I cannot say: I seem to hear his footsteps in my own
heart. Being his servant of this dark chamber, I have developed
a sense--I can know and feel without seeing.
SUDARSHANA. Would that I had this sense too, Surangama!
SURANGAMA. You will have it, O Queen ... this sense will awaken
in you one day. Your longing to have a sight of him makes you
restless, and therefore all your mind is strained and warped in
that direction. When you are past this state of feverish
restlessness, everything will become quite easy.
SUDARSHANA. How is it that it is easy to you, who are a servant,
and so difficult to me, the Queen?
SURANGAMA. It is because I am a mere servant that no difficulty
baulks me. On the first day, when he left this room to my care,
saying, "Surangama, you will always keep this chamber ready for
me: this is all your task," then I did not say, even in thought,
"Oh, give me the work of those who keep the other rooms lighted."
No, but as soon as I bent all my mind to my task, a power woke
and grew within me, and mastered every part of me unopposed....
Oh, there he comes! ... he is standing outside, before the
door. Lord! O King!
SONG outside.
/*
Open your door. I am waiting.
The ferry of the light from the dawn to the dark is done for
the day,
The evening star is up.
Have you gathered your flowers, braided your hair,
And donned your white robe for the night?
The cattle have come to their folds and birds to their nests.
The cross paths that run to all quarters have merged into one
in the dark.
Open your door. I am waiting.
*/
SURANGAMA. O King, who can keep thy own doors shut against thee?
They are not locked or bolted--they will swing wide open if you
only touch them with thy fingers. Wilt thou not even touch them?
Wilt thou not enter unless I go and open the doors?
SONG.
/*
At a breath you can remove my veils, my lord!
If I fall asleep on the dust and hear not your call, would you
wait till I wake?
Would not the thunder of your chariot wheel make the earth
tremble?
Would you not burst open the door and enter your own house
unbidden?
*/
Then do you go, O Queen, and open the door for him: he will not
enter otherwise.
SUDARSHANA. I do not see anything distinctly in the dark--I do
not know where the doors are. You know everything here--go and
open the doors for me.
[SURANGAMA opens the door, bows to the KING, and goes out. The
KING will remain invisible throughout this play.]
SUDARSHANA. Why do you not allow me to see you in the light?
KING. So you want to see me in the midst of a thousand things in
broad daylight! Why should I not be the only thing you can feel
in this darkness?
SUDARSHANA. But I must see you--I am longing to have a sight of
you.
KING. You will not be able to bear the sight of me--it will only
give you pain, poignant and overpowering.
SUDARSHANA. How can you say that I shall be unable to bear your
sight? Oh, I can feel even in this dark how lovely and wonderful
you are: why should I be afraid of you in the light? But tell
me, can you see me in the dark?
KING. Yes, I can.
SUDARSHANA. What do you see?
KING. I see that the darkness of the infinite heavens, whirled
into life and being by the power of my love, has drawn the light
of a myriad stars into itself, and incarnated itself in a form of
flesh and blood. And in that form, what aeons of thought and
striving, untold yearnings of limitless skies, the countless
gifts of unnumbered seasons!
SUDARSHANA. Am I so wonderful, so beautiful? When I hear you
speak so, my heart swells with gladness and pride. But how can I
believe the wonderful things you tell me? I cannot find them in
myself!
KING. Your own mirror will not reflect them--it lessens you,
limits you, makes you look small and insignificant. But could
you see yourself mirrored in my own mind, how grand would you
appear! In my own heart you are no longer the daily individual
which you think you are--you are verily my second self.
SUDARSHANA. Oh, do show me for an instant how to see with your
eyes! Is there nothing at all like darkness to you? I am afraid
when I think of this. This darkness which is to me real and
strong as death--is this simply nothing to you? Then how can
there be any union at all between us, in a place like this? No,
no--it is impossible: there is a barrier betwixt us two: not here,
no, not in this place. I want to find you and see you where I
see trees and animals, birds and stones and the earth
KING. Very well, you can try to find me--but none will point me
out to you. You will have to recognise me, if you can, yourself.
And even if anybody professes to show me to you, how can you be
sure he is speaking the truth?
SUDARSHANA. I shall know you; I shall recognise you. I shall
find you out among a million men. I cannot be mistaken.
KING. Very well, then, to-night, during the festival of the full
moon of the spring, you will try to find me out from the high
turret of my palace--search for me with your own eyes amongst the
crowd of people.
SUDARSHANA. Wilt thou be there among them?
KING. I shall show myself again and again, from every side of
the crowd. Surangama!
[Enter SURANGAMA]
SURANGAMA. What is thy pleasure, lord?
KING. To-night is the full moon festival of the spring.
SURANGAMA. What have I to do to-night?
KING. To-day is a festive day, not a day of work. The pleasure
gardens are in their full bloom--you will join in my festivities
there.
SURANGAMA. I shall do as thou desirest, lord.
KING. The Queen wants to see me to-night with her own eyes.
SURANGAMA. Where will the Queen see you?
KING. Where the music will play at its sweetest, where the air
will be heavy with the dust of flowers--there in the pleasure
grove of silver light and mellow gloom.
SURANGAMA. What can be seen in the hide-and-seek of darkness and
light? There the wind is wild and restless, everything is dance
and swift movement--will it not puzzle the eyes?
KING. The Queen is curious to search me out.
SURANGAMA. Curiosity will have to come back baffled and in
tears!
SONG.
/*
Ah, they would fly away, the restless vagrant eyes, the wild
birds of the forest!
But the time of their surrender will come, their flights hither
and thither will be ended when
The music of enchantment will pursue them and pierce their
hearts.
Alas, the wild birds would fly to the wilderness!
*/
III
[Before the Pleasure Gardens. Enter AVANTI, KOSHALA, KANCHI, and
other KINGS]
AVANTI. Will the King of this place not receive us?
KANCHI. What manner of governing a country is this? The King is
having a festival in a forest, where even the meanest and
commonest people can have easy access!
KOSHALA. We ought to have had a separate place set apart and
ready for our reception.
KANCHI. If he has not prepared such a place yet, we shall compel
him to have one erected for us.
KOSHALA. All this makes one naturally suspect if these people
have really got any King at all--it looks as if an unfounded
rumour has led us astray.
AVANTI. It may be so with regard to the King, but the Queen
Sudarshana of this place isn't at all an unfounded rumour.
KOSHALA. It is only for her sake that I have cared to come at
all. I don't mind omitting to see one who never makes himself
visible, but it would be a stupid mistake if we were to go away
without a sight of one who is eminently worth a visit.
KANCHI. Let us make some definite plan, then.
AVANTI. A plan is an excellent thing, so long as you are not
yourself entangled in it.
KANCHI. Hang it, who are these vermin swarming this way? Here!
who are you?
[Enter GRANDFATHER and the boys]
GRANDFATHER. We are the Jolly Band of Have-Nothings.
AVANTI. The introduction was superfluous. But you will take
yourselves away a little further and leave us in peace.
GRANDFATHER. We never suffer from a want of space: we can afford
to give you as wide a berth as you like. What little suffices
for us is never the bone of contention between any rival
claimants. Is not that so, my little friends? [They sing.]
SONG.
/*
We have nothing, indeed we have nothing at all!
We sing merrily fol de rol de rol!
Some build high walls of their houses
On the bog of the sands of gold.
We stand before them and sing
Fol de rol de rol.
Pickpockets hover about us
And honour us with covetous glances.
We shake our empty pockets and sing
Fol de rol de rol.
When death, the old hag, steals to our doors
We snap our fingers at her face,
And we sing in a chorus with gay flourishes
Fol de rol de rol.
*/
KANCHI. Look over there, Koshala, who are those coming this way?
A pantomime? Somebody is out masquerading as a King.
KOSHALA. The King of this place may tolerate all this
tomfoolery, but we won't.
AVANTI. He is perhaps some rural chief.
[Enter GUARDS on foot]
KANCHI. What country does your King come from?
FIRST SOLDIER. He is the King of this country. He is going to
command the festivities. [They go out.]
KOSHALA. What! The King of this country come out for the
festivities!
AVANTI. Indeed! We shall then have to return with a sight of
him only--leaving the delectable Queen unseen.
KANCHI. Do you really think that fellow spoke the truth?
Anybody can pass himself off as the King of this kingless
country. Can you not see that the man looks like a dressed-up
King--much too over-dressed?
AVANTI. But he looks handsome--his appearance is not without a
certain pleasing attractiveness.
KANCHI. He may be pleasing to your eye, but if you look at him
closely enough there can be no mistaking him . You will see how
I expose him before you all.
[Enter the trumped-up "KING".]
"KING". Welcome, princes, to our kingdom! I trust your
reception has been properly looked after by my officials?
KINGS. [with feigned courtesy] Oh yes--nothing was lacking in
the reception.
KANCHI. If there was any shortcoming at all, it has been made up
by the honour of our sight of your Majesty.
"KING". We do not show ourselves to the general public, but your
great devotion and loyalty to us has made it a pleasure for us
not to deny ourselves to you.
KANCHI. It is truly hard for us, your Majesty, to bear the
weight of your gracious favours.
"KING". We are afraid we shall not be able to stop here long.
KANCHI. I have thought so, already: you do not quite look up to
it.
"KING". In the meantime if you have any favours to ask of us
KANCHI. We have: but we would like to speak a little more in
private.
"KING". [to his attendants] Retire a little from our presence.
[They retire.] Now you can express your desires without any
reserve.
KANCHI. There will be no reserve on our part--our only fear is
that you might think restraint necessary for yourself.
"KING". Oh no, you need have no scruples on that score.
KANCHI. Come, then, do us homage by placing your head on the
ground before us.
"KING". It seems my servants have distributed the Varuni spirits
too liberally in the reception camps.
KANCHI. False pretender, it is you who are suffering from an
overdose of arrogant spirits. Your head will soon kiss the dust.
"KING". Princes, these heavy jokes are not worthy of a king.
KANCHI. Those who will jest properly with you are near at hand.
General!
"KING". No more, I entreat you. I can see plainly I owe homage to
you all. The head is bowing down of itself--there is no need for
the application of any sharp methods to lay it low. So here I do
my obeisance to you all. If you kindly allow me to escape I
shall not inflict my presence long on you.
KANCHI. Why should you escape? We will make you king of this
place--let us carry our joke to its legitimate finish. Have you
got any following?
"KING". I have. Every one who sees me in the streets flocks after
me. When I had a meagre retinue at first every one regarded me
with suspicion, but now with the increasing crowd their doubts
are waning and dissolving. The crowd is being hypnotised by its
own magnitude. I have not got to do anything now.
KANCHI. That's excellent! From this moment we all promise to
help and stand by you. But you will have to do us one service in
return.
"KING". Your commands and the crown you are putting on my head
will be equally binding and sacred to me.
KANCHI. At present we want nothing more than a sight of the
Queen Sudarshana. You will have to see to this.
"KING". I shall spare no pains for that.
KANCHI. We cannot put much faith on your pains--you will be
solely directed by our instructions. But now you can go and join
the festivities in the royal arbour with all possible splendour
and magnificence.[They go out.]
[Enter GRANDFATHER and a band of people]
FIRST CITIZEN. Grandfather, I cannot help saying--yes, and
repeating it five hundred times--that our King is a perfect
fraud.
GRANDFATHER. Why only five hundred times? There is no need to
practise such heroic self-control--you can say it five thousand
times if that adds to your pleasure.
SECOND CITIZEN. But you cannot keep up a dead lie forever.
GRANDFATHER. It has made me alive, my friend.
THIRD CITIZEN. We shall proclaim to the whole world that our
King is a lie, the merest and emptiest shadow!
FIRST CITIZEN. We shall all shout from our housetops that we
have no King--let him do whatever he likes if he exists.
GRANDFATHER. He will do nothing at all.
SECOND CITIZEN. My son died untimely at twenty-five of raging
fever in seven days. Could such a calamity befall me under the
rule of a virtuous King?
GRANDFATHER. But you still have got two sons left: while I have
lost all my five children one after another.
THIRD CITIZEN. What do you say now?
GRANDFATHER. What then? Shall I lose my King too because I have
lost my children? Don't take me for such a big fool as that.
FIRST CITIZEN. It is a fine thing to argue whether there is a
King or not when one is simply starving for want of food! Will
the King save us?
GRANDFATHER. Brother, you are right. But why not
find
the King who owns all the food? You certainly will not find by
your wailings at home.
SECOND CITIZEN. Look at the justice of our King! That
Bhadrasen--you know what a touching sight he is when he is
speaking of his King--the sentimental idiot! He is reduced to
such a state of penury that even the bats that infest his house
find it a too uncomfortable place.
GRANDFATHER. Why, look at me! I am toiling and slaving night
and day for my King, but I have not yet received so much as a
brass farthing for my pains.
THIRD CITIZEN. Now, what do you think of that?
GRANDFATHER. What should I think? Does any one reward his
friends? Go, my friends, and say if you like that our King
exists nowhere. That is also a part of our ceremony in
celebrating this festival.
IV
[Turret of the Royal Palace. SUDARSHANA and her friend ROHINI]
SUDARSHANA. You may make mistakes, Rohini, but I cannot be
mistaken: am I not the Queen? That, of course, must be my King.
ROHINI. He who has conferred such high honour upon you cannot be
long in showing himself to you.
SUDARSHANA. His very form makes me restless like a caged bird.
Did you try well to ascertain who he is?
ROHINI. Yes, I did. Every one I asked said that he was the
King.
SUDARSHANA. What country is he the King of?
ROHINI. Our country, King of this land.
SUDARSHANA. Are you sure that you are speaking of him who has a
sunshade made of flowers held over his head?
ROHINI. The same: he whose flag has the
Kimshuk flower
painted on it.
SUDARSHANA. I recognised him at once, of course, but it is you
who had your doubts.
ROHINI. We are apt to make mistakes, my Queen, and we are afraid
to offend you in case we are wrong.
SUDARSHANA. Would that Surangama were here! There would remain
no room for doubt then.
ROHINI. Do you think her cleverer than any of us?
SUDARSHANA. Oh no, but she would recognise him instantly.
ROHINI. I cannot believe that she would. She merely pretends to
know him. There is none to test her knowledge if she professes
to know the King. If we were as shameless as she is, it would
not have been difficult for us to boast about our acquaintance
with the King.
SUDARSHANA. But no, she never boasts.
ROHINI. It is pure affectation, the whole of it: which often
goes a longer way than open boasting. She is up to all manner of
tricks: that is why we could never like her.
SUDARSHANA. But whatever you may say, I should have liked to ask
her if she were here.
ROHINI. Very well, Queen. I shall bring her here. She must be
lucky if she is indispensable for the Queen to know the King.
SUDARSHANA. Oh no--it isn't for that--but I would like to hear
it said by every one.
ROHINI. Is not every one saying it? Why, just listen, the
acclamations of the people mount up even to this height!
SUDARSHANA. Then do one thing: put these flowers on a lotus
leaf, and take them to him.
ROHINI. And what am I to say if he asks who sends them?
SUDARSHANA. You will not have to say anything--he will know. He
thought that I would not be able to recognise him: I cannot let
him off without showing that I have found him out.
[ROHINI goes out with the flowers.]
SUDARSHANA. My heart is all a-quiver and restless to-night: I
have never felt like this before. The white, silver light of the
full moon is flooding the heavens and brimming over on every side
like the bubbling foam of wine, ... It seizes on me like a
yearning, like a mantling intoxication. Here, who is here?
[Enter a SERVANT]
SERVANT. What is your pleasure, your Majesty?
SUDARSHANA. Do you see those festive boys singing and moving
through the alleys and avenues of the mango trees? Call them
hither, bring them to me: I want to hear them sing. [SERVANT
goes out and enters with the boys.] Come, living emblems of
youthful spring, begin your festive song! All my mind and body
is song and music to-night--but the ineffable melody escapes my
tongue: do you then sing for my sake!
SONG.
/*
My sorrow is sweet to me in this spring night.
My pain smites at the chords of my love and softly sings.
Visions take birth from my yearning eyes and flit in the
moonlit sky.
The smells from the depths of the woodlands have lost their way
in my dreams.
Words come in whispers to my ears, I know not from where,
And bells in my anklets tremble and jingle in time with my
heart thrills.
*/
SUDARSHANA. Enough, enough--I cannot bear it any more! Your
song has filled my eyes with tears.... A fancy comes to me--that
desire can never attain its object--it need never attain it.
What sweet hermit of the woods has taught you this song? Oh that
my eyes could see him whose song my ears have heard! Oh, how I
wish--I wish I could wander rapt and lovely in the thick woodland
arbours of the heart! Dear boys of the hermitage! how shall I
reward you? This necklace is but made of jewels, hard stones--
its hardness will give you pain--I have got nothing like the
garlands of flowers you have on. [The boys bow and go out.]
[Enter ROHINI]
SUDARSHANA. I have not done well--I have not done well, Rohini.
I feel ashamed to ask you what happened. I have just realised
that no hand can really give the greatest of gifts. Still, let
me hear all.
ROHINI. When I gave the King those flowers, he did not appear to
understand anything.
SUDARSHANA. You don't say so? He did not understand
ROHINI. No; he sat there like a doll, without uttering a single
word. I think he did not want to show that he understood
nothing, so he just held his tongue.
SUDARSHANA. Fie on me! My shamelessness has been justly
punished. Why did you not bring back my flowers?
ROHINI. How could I? The King of Kanchi, a very clever man, who
was sitting by him, took in everything at a glance, and he just
smiled a bit and said, "Emperor, the Queen Sudarshana sends your
Majesty her greetings with these blossoms--the blossoms that
belong to the God of Love, the friend of Spring." The King
seemed to awake with a start, and said, "This is the crown of all
my regal glory to-night." I was coming back, all out of
countenance, when the King of Kanchi took off this necklace of
jewels from the King's person, and said to me, "Friend, the
King's garland gives itself up to you, in return for the happy
fortune you have brought."
SUDARSHANA. What, Kanchi had to make the King understand all
this! Woe is me, to-night's festival has opened wide for me the
doors of ignominy and shame! What else could I expect? Leave me
alone, Rohini; I want solitude for a time. [ROHINI goes out.] A
great blow has shattered my pride to atoms to-day, and yet ... I
cannot efface from my mind that beautiful, fascinating figure!
No pride is left me--I am beaten, vanquished, utterly helpless....
I cannot even turn away from him. Oh, how the wish comes back to
me again and again--to ask that garland of Rohini! But what
would she think! Rohini!
[Enter ROHINI]
ROHINI. What is your wish?
SUDARSHANA. What reward do you deserve for your services to-day?
ROHINI. Nothing from you--but I had my reward from the King as
it should be.
SUDARSHANA. That is no free gift, but an extortion, of reward.
I do not like to see you put on what was given in so indifferent
a manner. Take it off--I give you my bracelets if you leave it
here. Take these bracelets, and go now. [ROHINI goes out.]
Another defeat! I should have thrown this necklace away,--but I
could not! It is pricking me as if it were a garland of thorns--
but I cannot throw it away. This is what the god of the festival
has brought me to-night--this necklace of ignominy and shame!
V
[GRANDFATHER near the door of the Pleasure House. A Company of
MEN]
GRANDFATHER. Have you had enough of it, friends?
FIRST MAN. Oh, more than that, Grandpa. Just see, they have
made me red all over. None has escaped.
[Author's note: During the spring festival in India people throw
red powder on each other. In this play this red powder has been
taken to be the symbol of the passion of love.]
GRANDFATHER. No? Did they throw the red dust on the Kings too?
SECOND MAN. But who could approach them? They were all secure
inside the enclosures.
GRANDFATHER. So they have escaped you! Could you not throw the
least bit of colour on them? You should have forced your way
there.
THIRD MAN. My dear old man, they have a different sort of red
specially to themselves. Their eyes are red: the turbans of
their guards and retinue are red too. And the latter flourished
their swords about so much that a little more nearness on our
part would have meant a lavish display of the fundamental red
colour.
GRANDFATHER. Well done, friends--always keep them at a distance.
They are the exiles of the Earth--and we have got to keep them
so.
THIRD MAN. I am going home, Grandpa; it is past midnight.[Goes
out.]
[Enter a BAND of SINGERS, singing.]
/*
All blacks and whites have lost their distinction
And have become red--red as the tinge of your feet.
Red is my bodice and red are my dreams,
My heart sways and trembles like a red lotus.
*/
GRANDFATHER. Excellent, my friends, splendid! So you had a
really enjoyable time!
SINGERS. Oh, grand! Everything was red, red! Only the moon in
the sky gave us the slip--it remained white.
GRANDFATHER. He only looks so innocent from the outside. If you
had only taken off his white disguise, you would have seen his
trickery. I have been watching what red colours he is throwing
on the Earth to-night. And yet, fancy his remaining white and
colourless all the while!