Books: The King of the Dark Chamber
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Rabindranath Tagore (trans.) >> The King of the Dark Chamber
SONG.
/*
With you is my game, love, my love!
My heart is mad, it will never own defeat,
Do you think you will escape stainless yourself reddening me
with red powder?
Could I not colour your robe with the red pollens of the
blossom of my heart?
*/
[They go out.]
[Enter the "KING" and KANCHI.]
KANCHI. You must do exactly as I have told you. Let there be no
mistake of any kind.
"KING". There shall be no mistake.
KANCHI. The Queen Sudarshana's mansions are in the ...
"KING". Yes, sire, I have seen the place well.
KANCHI. What you have got to do is to set fire to the garden,
and then you will take advantage of the bustle and confusion to
accomplish your object straightway.
"KING". I shall remember.
KANCHI. Look here, Sir Pretender, I cannot help thinking that a
needless fear is troubling us--there is really no King in this
country.
"KING". My sole aim is to rid this country of this anarchy. Your
common man cannot live without a King, whether a real one or a
fraud! Anarchy is always a source of danger.
KANCHI. Pious benefactor of the people, your wonderful self-
sacrifice should really be an example to all of us. I am
thinking of doing this extraordinary service to the people
myself. [They go out.]
VI
ROHINI. What is the matter? I cannot make out what is all this!
[To the GARDENERS.] Where are you all going away in such a hurry?
FIRST GARDENER. We are going out of the garden.
ROHINI. Where?
SECOND GARDENER. We do not know where--the King has called us.
ROHINI. Why, the King is in the garden. Which King has called
you?
FIRST GARDENER. We cannot say.
SECOND GARDENER. The King we have been serving all our life, of
course.
ROHINI. Will you all go?
FIRST GARDENER. Yes, all--we have to go instantly. Otherwise we
might get into trouble. [They go out.]
ROHINI. I cannot understand their words.... I am afraid. They
are scampering off like wild animals that fly just before the
bank of a river breaks down into the water.
[Enter KING OF KOSHALA]
KOSHALA. Rohini, do you know where your King and Kanchi have
gone?
ROHINI. They are somewhere in the garden, but I could not tell
you where.
KOSHALA. I cannot really understand their intentions. I have
not done well to put my trust in Kanchi. [Exit.]
ROHINI. What is this dark affair going on amongst these kings?
Something dreadful is going to happen soon. Shall I too be drawn
into this affair? [Enter AVANTI]
AVANTI. Rohini, do you know where the other princes are?
ROHINI. It is difficult to say which of them is where. The King
of Koshala just passed by in this direction.
AVANTI. I am not thinking of Koshala. Where are your King and
Kanchi?
ROHINI. I have not seen them for a long time.
AVANTI. Kanchi is always avoiding us. He is certainly planning
to deceive us all. I have not done well to put my hand in this
imbroglio. Friend, could you kindly tell me any way out of this
garden?
ROHINI. I have none.
AVANTI. Is there no man here who will show me the way out?
ROHINI. The servants have all left the garden.
AVANTI. Why did they do so?
ROHINI. I could not exactly understand what they meant. They
said the King had commanded them to leave the garden at once.
AVANTI. King? Which King? Rohini They could not say exactly.
AVANTI. This does not sound well. I shall have to find a way
out at any cost. I cannot stay here a single moment more. [Goes
out hurriedly.]
ROHINI. Where shall I find the King? When I gave him the
flowers the Queen had sent, he did not seem much interested in me
at the time; but ever since that hour he has been showering gifts
and presents on me. This causeless generosity makes me more
afraid.... Where are the birds flying at such an hour of the
night? What has frightened them all of a sudden? This is not
the usual time of their flight, certainly, ... Why is the
Queen's pet deer running that way? Chapata! Chapata! She does
not even hear my call. I have never seen a night like this! The
horizon on every side suddenly becomes red, like a madman's eye!
The sun seems to be setting at this untimely hour on all sides at
the same time. What madness of the Almighty is this! ... Oh, I
am frightened! ... Where shall I find the King?
VII
[At the Door of the QUEEN'S Palace]
"KING". What is this you have done, Kanchi?
KANCHI. I wanted to fire only this part of the garden near the
palace. I had no idea that it would spread so quickly on all
sides. Tell me, quick, the way out of this garden.
"KING". I can tell you nothing about it. Those who brought us
here have all fled away.
VII
KANCHI. You are a native of this country--you must know the way.
"KING". I have never entered these inner royal gardens before.
KANCHI. I won't hear of it--you must show me the way, or I shall
split you into halves.
"KING". You may take my life by that means, but it would be a very
precarious method of finding the way out of this garden.
KANCHI. Why were you, then, going about saying that you were the
King of this country?
"KING". I am not the King--I am not the King. [Throwing himself
on the ground with folded hands.] Where art thou, my King? Save
me, oh, save me! I am a rebel--punish me, but do not kill me!
KANCHI. What is the use of shouting and cringing to the empty
air? It is a much better way of spending the time to search for
the way.
"KING". I shall lie down here--I shall not move an inch. Come
what will, I shall not complain.
KANCHI. I will not allow all this nonsense. If I am to be burnt
to death, you will be my companion to the very end.
FROM THE OUTSIDE. Oh, save us, save us, our King! The fire is
on all sides of us!
KANCHI. Fool, get up, lose no more time.
SUDARSHANA. [entering] King, O my King! save me, save me from
death! I am surrounded by fire.
"KING". Who is the King? I am no King.
SUDARSHANA. You are not the King?
"KING". No, I am a hypocrite, I am a scoundrel. [Flinging his
crown on the ground.] Let my deception and hypocrisy be shattered
into dust! [Goes out with KANCHI.]
SUDARSHANA. No King! He is not the King? Then, O thou God of
fire, burn me, reduce me to ashes! I shall throw myself into thy
hands, O thou great purifier; burn to ashes my shame, my longing,
my desire.
ROHINI. [entering] Queen, where are you going? All your inner
chambers are shrouded in raging fire--do you not enter there.
SUDARSHANA. Yes! I will enter those burning chambers! It is
the fire of my death! [Enters the Palace.]
VIII
[The Dark Room. The KING and SUDARSRANA]
KING. Do not be afraid--you have no cause for fear. The fire
will not reach this room.
SUDARSHANA. I have no fear--but oh, shame has accompanied me
like a raging fire. My face, my eyes, my heart, every part of my
body is being scorched and burnt by its flames.
KING. It will be some time before you get over this burning.
SUDARSHANA. This fire will never cease-will never cease!
KING. Do not be despondent, Queen!
SUDARSHANA. O King, I shall not hide anything from you.... I
have another's garland round my neck.
KING. That garland, too, is mine--how else could he get it? He
stole it from my room.
SUDARSHANA. But it is
his gift to me: yet I could not
fling this garland away! When the fire came roaring on all
sides of me, I thought of throwing this garland into the fire.
But no, I could not. My mind whispered, "Let that garland be
on you in your death." ... What fire is this, O King, into
which I, who had come out to see you, leaped like a moth that
cannot resist the flame? What a pain is this, oh, what agony!
The fire keeps burning as fiercely as ever, but I go on
living within its flames!
KING. But you have seen me at last--your desire has been
fulfilled.
SUDARSHANA. But did I seek to see you in the midst of this
fearful doom? I know not what I saw, but my heart is still
beating fast with fear.
KING. What did you see?
SUDARSHANA. Terrible,--oh, it was terrible! I am afraid even to
think of it again. Black, black--oh, thou art black like the
everlasting night! I only looked on thee for one dreadful
instant. The blaze of the fire fell on your features--you looked
like the awful night when a comet swings fearfully into our ken--
oh, then I closed my eyes--I could not look on you any more.
Black as the threatening storm-cloud, black as the shoreless sea
with the spectral red tint of twilight on its tumultuous waves!
KING. Have I not told you before that one cannot bear my sight
unless one is already prepared for me? One would want to run
away from me to the ends of the earth. Have I not seen this
times without number? That is why I wanted to reveal myself to
you slowly and gradually, not all too sudden.
SUDARSHANA. But sin came and destroyed all your hopes--the very
possibility of a union with you has now become unthinkable to me.
KING. It will be possible in time, my Queen. The utter and
bleak blackness that has to-day shaken you to your soul with fear
will one day be your solace and salvation. What else can my love
exist for?
SUDARSHANA. It cannot be, it is not possible. What will your
love only do?
My love has now turned away from you.
Beauty has cast its spell on me--this frenzy, this intoxication
will never leave me--it has dazzled and fired my eyes, it has
thrown its golden glamour over my very dreams! I have told you
all now--punish me as you like.
KING. The punishment has already begun.
SUDARSHANA. But if you do not cast me off. I will leave you
KING. You have the utmost liberty to do as you like.
SUDARSHANA. I cannot bear your presence! My heart is angry at
you. Why did you--but what have you done to me? ... Why are
you like this? Why did they tell me you were fair and handsome?
Thou art black, black as night--I shall never, I can never, like
you. I have seen what I love--it is soft as cream, delicate as
the
shirisha flower, beautiful as a butterfly.
KING. It is false as a mirage, empty as a bubble.
SUDARSHANA. Let it be--but I cannot stand near you--I simply
cannot! I must fly away from here. Union with you, it cannot be
possible! It cannot be anything but a false union--my mind must
inevitably turn away from you.
KING. Will you not even try a little?
SUDARSHANA. I have been trying since yesterday--but the more I
try, the more rebellious does my heart become. If I stay with
you I shall constantly be pursued and hounded by the thought that
I am impure, that I am false and faithless.
KING. Well then, you can go as far from me as you like.
SUDARSHANA. I cannot fly away from you--just because you do not
prevent my going. Why do you not hold me back, hold me by the
hair, saying, "You shall not go"? Why do you not strike me? Oh,
punish me, strike me, beat me with violent hands! But your
unresisting silence makes me wild--oh, I cannot bear it!
KING. How do you think that I am really silent? How do you know
that I am not trying to keep you back?
SUDARSHANA. Oh, no, no !--I cannot bear this--tell me aloud,
command me with the voice of thunder, compel me with words that
will drown everything else in my ears--do not let me off so
easily, so mildly!
KING. I shall leave you free, but why should I let you break
away from me?
SUDARSHANA. You will not let me? Well then, I must go!
KING. Go then!
SUDARSHANA. Then I am not to blame at all. You could have held
me back by force, but you did not! You have not hindered me--and
now I shall go away. Command your sentinels to prevent my going.
KING. No one will stand in your way. You can go as free as the
broken storm-cloud driven by the tempest.
SUDARSHANA. I can resist no more--something in me is impelling
me forward--I am breaking away from my anchor! Perhaps I shall
sink, but I shall return no more. [She rushes out.]
[Enter SURANGAMA, who sings]
SURANGAMA. What will of thine is this that sends me afar! Again
shall I come back at thy feet from all my wanderings. It is thy
love that feigns this neglect--thy caressing hands are pushing me
away--to draw me back to thy arms again! O my King, what is this
game that thou art playing throughout thy kingdom?
SUDARSHANA. [re-entering] King, O King!
SURANGAMA. He has gone away.
SUDARSHANA. Gone away? Well then, ... then he has cast me off
for good! I have come back, but he could not wait a single
instant for me! Very well, then, I am now perfectly free.
Surangama, did he ask you to keep me back?
SURANGAMA. No, he said nothing.
SUDARSHANA. Why should he say anything? Why should he care for
me? ... I am then free, perfectly free. But, Surangama, I
wanted to ask one thing of the King, but could not utter it in
his presence. Tell me if he has punished the prisoners with
death.
SURANGAMA. Death? My King never punishes with death.
SUDARSHANA. What has he done to them, then?
SURANGAMA. He has set them at liberty. Kanchi has acknowledged
his defeat and gone back to his kingdom.
SUDARSHANA. Ah, what a relief!
SURANGAMA. My Queen, I have one prayer to make to you.
SUDARSHANA. You will not have to utter your prayer in words,
Surangama. Whatever jewellery and ornaments the King gave me, I
leave to you--I am not worthy to wear them now.
SURANGAMA. No, I do not want them, my Queen. My master has
never given me any ornaments to wear--my unadorned plainness is
good enough for me. He has not given me anything of which I can
boast before people.
SUDARSHANA. What do you want of me then?
SURANGAMA. I too shall go with you, my Queen.
SUDARSHANA. Consider what you are saying; you are wanting to
leave your master. What a prayer for you to make!
SURANGAMA. I shall not go far from him--when you are going out
unguarded he will be with you, close by your side.
SUDARSHANA. You are talking nonsense, my child. I wanted to
take Rohini with me, but she would not come. What gives you
courage enough to wish to come with me?
SURANGAMA. I have got neither courage nor strength. But I shall
go--courage will come of itself, and strength too will come.
SUDARSHANA. No, I cannot take you with me; your presence will
constantly remind me of my shame; I shall not be able to endure
that.
SURANGAMA. O my Queen, I have made all your good and all your
evil my own as well; will you treat me as a stranger still? I
must go with you.
IX
[The KING OF KANYA KUBJA, father of SUDARSHANA, and his MINISTER]
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. I heard everything before her arrival.
MINISTER. The princess is waiting alone outside the city gates
on the bank of the river. Shall I send people to welcome her
home?
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. What! She who has faithlessly left her
husband--do you propose trumpeting her infamy and shame to every
one by getting up a show for her?
MINISTER. Shall I then make arrangements for her residence at
the palace?
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. You will do nothing of the sort. She has
left her place as the Empress of her own accord--here she will
have to work as a maid-servant if she wants to stay in my house.
MINISTER. It will be hard and bitter to her, Your Highness.
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. If I seek to save her from her sufferings,
then I am not worthy to be her father.
MINISTER. I shall arrange everything as you wish, Your Highness.
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. Let it be kept a secret that she is my
daughter; otherwise we shall all be in an awful trouble.
MINISTER. Why do you fear such disaster, Your Highness?
KING OF KANYA KUBJA. When woman swerves from the right path,
then she appears fraught with the direst calamity. You do not
know with what deadly fear this daughter of mine has inspired
me--she is coming to my home laden with peril and danger.
X
[Inner Apartments of the Palace. SUDARSHANA and SURANGAMA]
SUDARSHANA. Go away from me, Surangama! A deadly anger rages
within me--I cannot bear anybody--it makes me wild to see you so
patient and submissive.
SURANGAMA. Whom are you angry with?
SUDARSHANA. I do not know; but I wish to see everything
destroyed and convulsed in ruin and disaster! I left my place on
the throne as the Empress in a moment's time. Did I lose my all
to sweep the dust, to sweat and slave in this dismal hole? Why
do the torches of mourning not flare up for me all over the
world? Why does not the earth quake and tremble? Is my fall but
the unobserved dropping of the puny bean-flower? Is it not more
like the fall of a glowing star, whose fiery blazon bursts the
heavens asunder?
SURANGAMA. A mighty forest only smokes and smoulders before it
bursts into a conflagration: the time has not come yet.
SUDARSHANA. I have thrown my queen's honour and glory to the
dust and winds--but is there no human being who will come out to
meet my desolate soul here? Alone--oh, I am fearfully, terribly
alone!
SURANGAMA. You are not alone.
SUDARSHANA. Surangama, I shall not keep anything from you. When
he set the palace on fire, I could not be angry with him. A
great inward joy set my heart a-flutter all the while. What a
stupendous crime! What glorious prowess! It was this courage
that made me strong and fired my own spirits. It was this
terrible joy that enabled me to leave everything behind me in a
moment's time. But is it all my imagination only? Why is there
no sign of his coming anywhere?
SURANGAMA. He of whom you are thinking did not set fire to the
palace--it is the King of Kanchi who did it.
SUDARSHANA. Coward! But is it possible? So handsome, so
bewitching, and yet no manhood in him! Have I deceived myself
for the sake of such a worthless creature? O shame! Fie on me!
... But, Surangama, don't you think that your King should yet
have come to take me back? [SURANGAMA remains silent.] You think
I am anxious to go back? Never! Even if the King really came I
should not have returned. Not even once did he forbid me to come
away, and I found all the doors wide open to let me out! And the
stony and dusty road over which I walked--it was nothing to it
that a queen was treading on it. It is hard and has no feelings,
like your King; the meanest beggar is the same to it as the
highest Empress. You are silent! Well, I tell you, your King's
behaviour is--mean, brutal, shameful!
SURANGAMA. Every one knows that my King is hard and pitiless--no
one has ever been able to move him.
SUDARSHANA. Why do you, then, call him day and night?
SURANGAMA. May he ever remain hard and relentless like rock--may
my tears and prayers never move him! Let my sorrows be ever mine
only--and may his glory and victory be for ever!
SUDARSHANA. Surangama, look! A cloud of dust seems to rise over
the eastern horizon across the fields.
SURANGAMA. Yes, I see it.
SUDARSHANA. Is that not like the banner of a chariot?
SURANGAMA. Indeed, a banner it is.
SUDARSHANA. Then he is coming. He has come at last!
SURANGAMA. Who is coming?
SUDARSHANA. Our King--who else? How could he live without me?
It is a wonder how he could hold out even for these days.
SURANGAMA. No, no, this cannot be the King.
SUDARSHANA. "No," indeed! As if you know everything! Your King
is hard, stony, pitiless, isn't he? Let us see how hard he can
be. I knew from the beginning that he would come--that he would
have to rush after me. But remember, Surangama, I never for a
single moment asked him to come. You will see how I make your
King confess his defeat to me! Just go out, Surangama, and let
me know everything. [SURANGAMA goes out.] But shall I go if he
comes and asks me to return with him? Certainly not! I will not
go! Never!
[Enter SURANGAMA]
SURANGAMA. It is not the King, my Queen.
SUDARSHANA. Not the King? Are you quite sure? What! he has
not come yet?
SURANGAMA. No, my King never raises so much dust when he comes.
Nobody can know when he comes at all.
SUDARSHANA. Then this is--
SURANGAMA. The same: he is coming with the King of Kanchi.
SUDARSHANA. Do you know his name?
SURANGAMA. His name is Suvarna.
SUDARSHANA. It is he, then. I thought, "I am lying here like
waste refuse and offal, which no one cares even to touch." But
my hero is coming now to release me. Did you know Suvarna?
SURANGAMA. When I was at my father's home, in the gambling den
SUDARSHANA. No, no, I won't hear anything of him from you. He
is my own hero, my only salvation. I shall know him without your
telling stories about him. But just see, a nice man your King
is! He did not care to come to rescue me from even this
degradation. You cannot blame me after this. I could not have
waited for him all my life here, toiling ignominiously like a
bondslave. I shall never have
your meekness and
submissiveness.
XI
[Encampment]
KANCHI. [To KANYA KUBJA'S MESSENGER.] Tell your King that he
need not receive us exactly as his guests. We are on our way
back to our kingdoms, but we are waiting to rescue Queen
Sudarshana from the servitude and degradation to which she is
condemned here.
MESSENGER. Your Highness, you will remember that the princess is
in her father's house.
KANCHI. A daughter may stay in her father's home only so long as
she remains unmarried.
MESSENGER. But her connections with her father's family remain
intact still.
KANCHI. She has abjured all such relations now.
MESSENGER. Such relationship can never be abjured, Your
Highness, on this side of death: it may remain in abeyance at
times, but can never be wholly broken up.
KANCHI. If the King chooses not to give up his daughter to me on
peaceful terms, our
Kshatriya code of righteousness will
oblige me to employ force. You may take this as my last word.
MESSENGER. Your Highness, do not forget that our King too is
bound by the same code. It is idle to expect that he will
deliver up his daughter by merely hearing your threats.
KANCHI. Tell your King that I have come prepared for such an
answer. [MESSENGER goes out.]
SUVARNA. King of Kanchi, it seems to me that we are daring too
much.
KANCHI. What pleasure would there be in this adventure if it
were otherwise?
SUVARNA. It does not cost much courage to challenge Kanya
Kubja--but ...
KANCHI. If you once begin to be afraid of "but," you will hardly
find a place in this world safe enough for you.
[Enter a SOLDIER]
SOLDIER. Your Highness! I have just received the news that the
Kings of Koshala, Avanti, and Kalinga are coming this way with
their armies. [Exit.]
KANCHI. Just what I was afraid of! The report of Sudarshana's
flight has spread abroad--now we are going to be in for a general
scramble which is sure to end in smoke.
SUVARNA. It is useless now, Your Highness. These are not good
tidings. I am perfectly certain that it is our Emperor himself
who has secretly spread the report everywhere.
KANCHI. Why, what good will it bring him?
SUVARNA. The greedy ones will tear one another to pieces in the
general rivalry and scramble--and he will take advantage of the
situation to go back with the booty.
KANCHI. Now it becomes clear why your King never shows himself.
His trick is to multiply himself on every side--fear makes him
visible everywhere. But I will still maintain that your King is
but an empty fraud from top to bottom.
SUVARNA. But, please Your Highness, will you have the kindness
to let me off?
KANCHI. I cannot let you go--I have some use for you in this
affair.
[Enter a SOLDIER]
SOLDIER. Your Highness, Virat, Panchal, and Vidarbha too have
come. They have encamped on the other side of the river.[Exit.]
KANCHI. In the beginning we must all fight together. Let the
battle with Kanya Kubja first be over, then we shall find some
way out of the difficulty.
SUVARNA. Please do not drag me into your plans--I shall be happy
if you leave me alone--I am a poor, mean creature--nothing can--
KANCHI. Look here, king of hypocrites, ways and means are never
of a very exalted order--roads and stairs and so forth are always
to be trodden under our feet. The advantage of utilising men
like you in our plans is that we have to make use of no mask or
illusion. But if I were to consult my prime minister, it would
be absurd for me to call theft by any name less dignified than
public benefit. I will go now, and move the princes about like
pawns on the chessboard; the game cannot evidently go on if all
the chessmen propose moving like kings!
XII
[Interior of the Palace]
SUDARSHANA. Is the fight still going on?
SURANGAMA. As fiercely as ever.
SUDARSHANA. Before going out to the battle my father came to me
and said, "You have come away from one King, but you have drawn
seven Kings after you: I have a mind to cut you up into seven
pieces and distribute them among the princes. It would have been
well if he did so. Surangama!
SURANGAMA. Yes?
SUDARSHANA. If your King had the power to save me, could my
present state have left him unmoved?
SURANGAMA. My Queen, why do you ask me? Have I the power to
answer for my King? I know my understanding is dark; that is why
I never dare to judge him.