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Rabindranath Tagore (trans.) >> The King of the Dark Chamber
SUDARSHANA. Who have joined in this fight?
SURANGAMA. All the seven princes.
SUDARSHANA. No one else?
SURANGAMA. Suvarna attempted to escape--in secret before the
fight began--but Kanchi has kept him a prisoner in his camps.
SUDARSHANA. Oh, I should have been dead long ago! But, O King,
my King, if you had come and helped my father, your fame would
have been none the less! It would have become brighter and
higher. Are you quite sure, Surangama, that he has not come?
SURANGAMA. I know nothing for certain.
SUDARSHANA. But since I came here I have felt suddenly many a
time as if somebody were playing on a
vina below my window.
SURANGAMA. There is nothing impossible in the idea that somebody
indulges his taste for music there.
SUDARSHANA. There is a deep thicket below my window--I try to
find out who it is every time I hear the music, but I can see
nothing distinctly.
SURANGAMA. Perhaps some wayfarer rests in the shade and plays on
the instrument.
SUDARSHANA. It may be so, but my old window in the palace comes
back to my memory. I used to come after dressing in the evening
and stand at my window, and out of the blank darkness of our
lampless meeting-place used to stream forth strains and songs and
melodies, dancing and vibrating in endless succession and
overflowing profusion, like the passionate exuberance of a
ceaseless fountain!
SURANGAMA. O deep and sweet darkness! the profound and mystic
darkness whose servant I was!
SUDARSHANA. Why did you come away with me from that room?
SURANGAMA. Because I knew he would follow us and take us back.
SUDARSHANA. But no, he will not come--he has left us for good.
Why should he not?
SURANGAMA. If he can leave us like that, then we have no need of
him. Then he does not exist for us: then that dark chamber is
totally empty and void--no vina ever breathed its music there--
none called you or me in that chamber; then everything has been a
delusion and an idle dream.
[Enter the DOORKEEPER]
SUDARSHANA. Who are you?
DOORKEEPER. I am the porter of this palace.
SUDARSHANA. Tell me quickly what you have got to say.
DOORKEEPER. Our King has been taken prisoner.
SUDARSHANA. Prisoner? O Mother Earth! [Faints.]
XIII
[KING OF KANCHI and SUVARNA]
SUVARNA. You say, then, that there will be no more necessity of
any fight amongst yourselves?
KANCHI. No, you need not be afraid. I have made all the princes
agree that he whom the Queen accepts as her husband will have
her, and the others will have to abandon all further struggle.
SUVARNA. But you must have done with me now, Your Highness--so I
beg to be let off now. Unfit as I am for anything, the fear of
impending danger has unnerved me and stunned my intellect. You
will therefore find it difficult to put me to any use.
KANCHI. You will have to sit there as my umbrella-holder.
SUVARNA. Your servant is ready for anything; but of what profit
will that be to you?
KANCHI. My man, I see that your weak intellect cannot go with a
high ambition in you. You have no notion yet with what favour
the Queen looked upon you. After all, she cannot possibly throw
the bridal garland on an umbrella-bearer's neck in a company of
princes, and yet, I know, she will not be able to turn her mind
away from you. So on all accounts this garland will fall under
the shade of my regal umbrella.
SUVARNA. Your Highness, you are entertaining dangerous
imaginings about me. I pray you, please do not implicate me in
the toils of such groundless notions. I beg Your Highness most
humbly, pray set me at liberty.
KANCHI. As soon as my object is attained, I shall not keep you
one moment from your liberty. Once the end is attained, it is
futile to burden oneself with the means.
XIV
[SUDARSHANA and SURANGAMA at the Window]
SUDARSHANA. Must I go to the assembly of the princes, then? Is
there no other means of saving father's life?
SURANGAMA. The King of Kanchi has said so.
SUDARSHANA . Are these the words worthy of a King? Did he say
so with his own lips?
SURANGAMA. No, his messenger, Suvarna, brought this news.
SUDARSHANA. Woe, woe is me!
SURANGAMA. And he produced a few withered flowers and said,
"Tell your Queen that the drier and more withered these souvenirs
of the Spring Festival become, the fresher and more blooming do
they grow within in my heart."
SUDARSHANA. Stop! Tell me no more. Do not torment me any more.
SURANGAMA. Look! There sit all the princes in the great
assembly. He who has no ornament on his person, except a single
garland of flowers round his crown--he is the King of Kanchi.
And he who holds the umbrella over his head, standing behind
him--that is Suvarna.
SUDARSHANA. Is that Suvarna? Are you quite certain?
SURANGAMA. Yes, I know him well.
SUDARSHANA. Can it be that it is this man that I saw the other
day? No, no,--I saw something mingled and transfused and blended
with light and darkness, with wind and perfume,--no, no, it
cannot be he; that is not he.
SURANGAMA. But every one admits that he is exceedingly beautiful
to look at.
SUDARSHANA. How could that beauty fascinate me? Oh, what shall
I do to purge my eyes of their pollution?
SURANGAMA. You will have to wash them in that bottomless
darkness.
SUDARSHANA. But tell me, Surangama, why does one make such
mistakes?
SURANGAMA. Mistakes are but the preludes to their own
destruction.
MESSENGER. [entering] Princess, the Kings are waiting for you in
the hall. [Exit.]
SUDARSHANA. Surangama, bring me the veil. [SURANGAMA goes out.]
O King, my only King! You have left me alone, and you have been
but just in doing so. But will you not know the inmost truth
within my soul? [Taking out a dagger from within her bosom.]
This body of mine has received a stain--I shall make a sacrifice
of it to-day in the dust of the hall, before all these princes!
But shall I never be able to tell you that I know of no stain of
faithlessness within the hidden chambers of my heart? That dark
chamber where you would come to meet me lies cold and empty
within my bosom to-day--but, O my Lord! none has opened its
doors, none has entered it but you, O King! Will you never come
again to open those doors? Then, let death come, for it is dark
like yourself, and its features are beautiful as yours . It is
you--it is yourself, O King!
XV
[The Gathering of the PRINCES]
VIDARBHA. King of Kanchi, how is it that you have not got a
single piece of ornament on your person?
KANCHI. Because I entertain no hopes at all, my friend.
Ornaments would but double the shame of my defeat.
KALINGA. But your umbrella-bearer seems to have made up for
that,--he is loaded with gold and jewellery all over.
VIRAT. The King of Kanchi wants to demonstrate the futility and
inferiority of outer beauty and grandeur. Vanity of his prowess
has made him discard all outer embellishments from his limbs.
KOSLIALA. I am quite up to his trickery; he is seeking to prove
his own dignity, maintaining a severe plainness among the
bejewelled princes.
PANCHALA. I cannot commend his wisdom in this matter. Every one
knows that a woman's eyes are like a moth in that they fling
themselves headlong on the glare and glitter of jewel and gold.
KALINGA. But how long shall we have to wait more?
KANCHI. Do not grow impatient, King of Kalinga--sweet are the
fruits of delay.
KALINGA. If I were sure of the fruit I could have endured it.
It is because my hopes of tasting the fruit are extremely
precarious that my eagerness to have a sight of her breaks
through all bounds.
KANCHI. But you are young still--abandoned hope comes back to
you again and again like a shameless woman at your age: we,
however, have long passed that stage.
KOSHALA. Kanchi, did you feel as if something shook your seat
just now? Is it an earthquake?
KANCHI. Earthquake? I do not know.
VIDARBHA. Or perhaps some other prince is coming with his army.
KALINGA. There is nothing against your theory except that we
should have first heard the news from some herald or messenger in
that case.
VIDARBHA. I cannot regard this as a very auspicious omen.
KANCHI. Everything looks inauspicious to the eye of fear.
VIDARBHA. I fear none except Fate, before which courage or
heroism is as futile as it is absurd.
PANCHALA. Vidarbha, do not darken to-day's happy proceedings
with your unwelcome prognostications.
KANCHI. I never take the unseen into account till it has become
"seen."
VIDARBHA. But then it might be too late to do anything.
PANCHALA. Did we not all of us start at a specially auspicious
moment?
VIDARBHA. Do you think you insure against every possible risk by
starting at auspicious moments? It looks as if--
KANCHI. You had better let the "as if" alone: though our own
creation, it often proves our ruin and destruction.
KALINGA. Isn't that music somewhere outside?
PANCHALA. Yes, it sounds like music, sure enough.
KANCHI. Then at last it must be the Queen Sudarshana who is
approaching near. [Aside to SUVARNA.] Suvarna, you must not hide and cower behind me like that. Mind, the umbrella in your
hand is shaking!
[Enter GRANDFATHER, dressed as a warrior]
KALINGA. Who is that?--Who are you?
PANCHALA. Who is this that dares to enter this hall without
being invited?
VIRAT. Amazing impudence! Kalinga, just prevent the fellow from
advancing further.
KALINGA. You are all my superiors in age--you are fitter to do
that than myself.
VIDARBHA. Let us hear what he has to say.
GRANDFATHER. The KING has come.
VIDARBHA. [starting] King?
PANCHALA. Which King?
KALINGA. Where does he come from?
GRANDFATHER. My King!
VIRAT. Your King?
KALINGA. Who is he?
KOSHALA. What do you mean?
GRANDFATHER. You all know whom I mean. He has come.
VIDARBHA. He has come?
KOSHALA. With what intention?
GRANDFATHER. He has summoned you all to come to him.
KANCHI. Summoned us, indeed? In what terms has he been pleased
to summon us?
GRANDFATHER. You can take his call in any way you like--there is
none to prevent you--he is prepared to make all kinds of welcome
to suit your various tastes.
VIRAT. But who are you?
GRANDFATHER. I am one of his generals.
KANCHI. Generals? It is a lie! Do you think of frightening us?
Do you imagine that I cannot see through your disguise? We all
know you well--and you pose as a "general" before us!
GRANDFATHER. You have recognised me to perfection. Who is so
unworthy as I to bear my King's commands? And yet it is he who
has invested me with these robes of a general and sent me here:
he has chosen me before greater generals and mightier warriors.
KANCHI. All right, we shall go to observe the proprieties and
amenities on a fitting occasion--but at present we are in the
midst of a pressing engagement. He will have to wait till this
little function is over.
GRANDFATHER. When he sends out his call he does not wait.
KOSHALA. I shall obey his call; I am going at once.
VIDARBHA. Kanchi, I cannot agree with you in your proposal to
wait till this function is over. I am going.
KALINGA. You are older than I am--I shall follow you.
PANCHALA. Look behind you, Prince of Kanchi, your regal umbrella
is lying in the dust: you have not noticed when your
umbrella-holder has stolen away.
KANCHI. All right, general. I too am going--but not to do him
homage. I go to fight him on the battle-ground.
GRANDFATHER. You will meet my King in the field of battle: that
is no mean place for your reception.
VIRAT. Look here, friends, perhaps we are all flying before an
imagined terror--it looks as if the King of Kanchi will have the
best of it.
PANCHALA. Possibly, when the fruit is so near the hand, it is
cowardly and foolish to go away without plucking it.
KALINGA. It is better to join the King of Kanchi. He cannot be
without a definite plan and purpose when he is doing and daring
so much.
XVI
[SUDARSHANA and SURANGAMA]
SUDARSHANA. The fight is over now. When will the King come?
SURANGAMA. I do not know myself: I am also looking forward to
his coming.
SUDARSHANA. I feel such a throb of joy, Surangama, that my
breast is positively aching. But I am dying with shame too; how
shall I show my face to him?
SURANGAMA. Go to him in utmost humility and resignation, and all
shame will vanish in a moment.
SUDARSHANA. I cannot help confessing that I have met with my
uttermost defeat for all the rest of my life. But pride made me
claim the largest share in his love so long. Every one used to
say I had such wonderful beauty, such graces and virtues; every
one used to say that the King showed unlimited kindness towards
me--this is what makes it difficult for me to bend my heart in
humility before him.
SURANGAMA. This difficulty, my Queen, will pass off.
SUDARSHANA. Oh, yes, it will pass--the day has arrived for me to
humble myself before the whole world. But why does not the King
come to take me back? What more is he waiting for yet?
SURANGAMA. Have I not told you my King is cruel and hard--very
hard indeed?
SUDARSHANA. Go out, Surangama, and bring me news of him.
SURANGAMA. I do not know where I should go to get any news of
him. I have asked Grandfather to come; perhaps when he comes we
shall hear something from him.
SUDARSHANA. Alack, my evil fate! I have been reduced to asking
others to hear about my own King!
[Transciber's note: Alack should probably be replaced with Alas.]
[Enter GRANDFATHER]
SUDARSHANA. I have heard that you are my King's friend, so
accept my obeisance and give me your blessings.
GRANDFATHER. What are you doing, Queen? I never accept
anybody's obeisance. My relation with every one is only that of
comradeship.
SUDARSHANA. Smile on me, then--give me good news. Tell me when
the King is coming to take me back.
GRANDFATHER. You ask me a hard question, indeed! I hardly
understand yet the ways of my friend. The battle is over, but no
one can tell where he is gone.
SUDARSHANA. Is he gone away, then?
GRANDFATHER. I cannot find any trace of him here.
SUDARSHANA. Has he gone? And do you call such a person your
friend?
GRANDFATHER. That is why he gets people's abuse as well as
suspicion. But my King simply does not mind it in the least.
SUDARSHANA. Has he gone away? Oh, oh, how hard, how cruel, how
cruel! He is made of stone, he is hard as adamant! I tried to
move him with my own bosom--my breast is torn and bleeding--but
him I could not move an inch! Grandfather, tell me, how can you
manage with such a friend?
GRANDFATHER. I have known him now--I have known him through my
griefs and joys--he can make me weep no more now.
SUDARSHANA. Will he not let me know him also?
GRANDFATHER. Why, he will, of course. Nothing else will satisfy
him.
SUDARSHANA. Very well, I shall see how hard he can be! I shall
stay here near the window without saying a word; I shall not move
an inch; let me see if he will not come!
GRANDFATHER. You are young still--you can afford to wait for
him; but to me, an old man, a moment's loss is a week. I must
set out to seek him whether I succeed or not.[Exit.]
SUDARSHANA. I do not want him--I will not seek him! Surangama,
I have no need of your King! Why did he fight with the princes?
Was it for me at all? Did he want to show off his prowess and
strength? Go away from here--I cannot bear your sight. He has
humbled me to the dust, and is not satisfied still!
XVII
[A Band of CITIZENS]
FIRST CITIZEN. When so many Kings met together, we thought we
were going to have some big fun; but somehow everything took such
a turn that nobody knows what happened at all!
SECOND CITIZEN. Did you not see, they could not come to an
agreement among themselves?--every one distrusted every one else.
THIRD CITIZEN. None kept to their original plans; one wanted to
advance, another thought it better policy to recede; some went to
the right, others made a rush to the left: how can you call that
a fight?
FIRST CITIZEN. They had no eye to real fighting--each had his
eye on the others.
SECOND CITIZEN. Each was thinking, "Why should I die to enable
others to reap the harvest?"
THIRD CITIZEN. But you must all admit that Kanchi fought like a
real hero.
FIRST CITIZEN. He for a long time after his defeat seemed loth
to acknowledge himself beaten.
SECOND CITIZEN. He was at last fixed in the chest by a deadly
missile.
THIRD CITIZEN. But before that he did not seem to realise that
he had been losing ground at every step.
FIRST CITIZEN. As for the other Kings--well, nobody knows where
they fled, leaving poor Kanchi alone in the field.
SECOND CITIZEN. But I have heard that he is not dead yet.
THIRD CITIZEN. No, the physicians have saved him--but he will
carry the mark of his defeat on his breast till his dying day.
FIRST CITIZEN. None of the other Kings who fled has escaped;
they have all been taken prisoners. But what sort of justice is
this that was meted out to them?
SECOND CITIZEN. I heard that every one was punished except
Kanchi, whom the judge placed on his right on the throne of
justice, putting a crown on his head.
THIRD CITIZEN. This beats all mystery hollow.
SECOND CITIZEN. This sort of justice, to speak frankly, strikes
us as fantastic and capricious.
FIRST CITIZEN. Just so. The greatest offender is certainly the
King of Kanchi; as for the others, greed of gain now pressed them
to advance, now they drew back in fear.
THIRD CITIZEN. What kind of justice is this, I ask? It is as if
the tiger got scot-free, while his tail got cut off.
SECOND CITIZEN. If I were the judge, do you think Kanchi would
be whole and sound at this hour? There would be nothing left of
him altogether.
THIRD CITIZEN. They are great, high justices, my friends; their
brains are of a different stamp from ours.
FIRST CITIZEN. Have they got any brains at all, I wonder? They
simply indulge their sweet whims as there are none to say
anything to them from above.
SECOND CITIZEN. Whatever you may say, if we had the governing
power in our hands we should certainly have carried on the
government much better than this.
THIRD CITIZEN. Can there be any real doubts about that? That of
course goes without saying.
XVIII
[The Street. GRANDFATHER and KANCHI]
GRANDFATHER. What, Prince of Kanchi, you here!
KANCHI. Your King has sent me on the road.
GRANDFATHER. That is a settled habit with him.
KANCHI. And now, no one can get a glimpse of him.
GRANDFATHER. That too is one of his amusements.
KANCHI. But how long more will he elude me like this? When
nothing could make me acknowledge him as my King, he came all of
a sudden like a terrific tempest--God knows from where--and
scattered my men and horses and banners in one wild tumult: but
now, when I am seeking the ends of the earth to pay him my humble
homage, he is nowhere to be seen.
GRANDFATHER. But however big an Emperor he may be, he has to
submit to him that yields. But why have you come out at night,
Prince?
KANCHI. I still cannot get rid of the feeling of a secret dread
of being laughed at by people when they see me meekly doing my
homage to your King, acknowledging my defeat.
GRANDFATHER. Such indeed is the people. What would move others
to tears only serves to move their empty laughter.
KANCHI. But you too are on the road, Grandfather.
GRANDFATHER. This is my jolly pilgrimage to the land of losing
everything.
SINGS.
/*
I am waiting with my all in the hope of losing everything.
I am watching at the roadside for him who turns one out into
the open road,
Who hides himself and sees, who loves you unknown to you,
I have given my heart in secret love to him,
I am waiting with my all in the hope of losing everything.
*/
XIX
[A Road. SUDARSHANA and SURANGAMA]
SUDARSHANA. What a relief, Surangama, what freedom! It is my
defeat that has brought me freedom. Oh, what an iron pride was
mine! Nothing could move it or soften it. My darkened mind
could not in any way be brought to see the plain truth that it
was not the King who was to come, it was I who ought to have gone
to him. All through yesternight I lay alone on the dusty floor
before that window--lay there through the desolate hours and
wept! All night the southern winds blew and shrieked and moaned
like the pain that was biting at my heart; and all through it I
heard the plaintive "Speak, wife!" of the nightbird echoing in
the tumult outside! ... It was the helpless wail of the dark
night, Surangama!
SURANGAMA. Last night's heavy and melancholy air seemed to hang
on for an eternity--oh, what a dismal and gboomy night!
SUDARSHANA. But would you believe it--I seemed to hear the soft
strains of the
vina floating through all that wild din and
tumult! Could he play such sweet and tender tunes, he who is so
cruel and terrible? The world knows only my indignity and
ignominy--but none but my own heart could hear those strains that
called me through the lone and wailing night. Did you too,
Surangama, hear the
vina? Or was that but a dream of mine?
SURANGAMA. But it is just to hear that same
vina's music
that I am always by your side. It is for this call of music,
which I knew would one day come to dissolve all the barriers of
love, that I have all along been listening with an eager ear.
SUDARSHANA. He did at last send me on the open road--I could not
withstand his will. When I shall find him, the first words that
I shall tell him will be, "I have come of my own will--I have not
awaited your coming." I shall say, "For your sake have I trodden
the hard and weary roads, and bitter and ceaseless has been my
weeping all the way." I shall at least have this pride in me
when I meet him.
SURANGAMA. But even that pride will not last. He came before
you did--who else could have sent you on the road?
SUDARSHANA. Perhaps he did. As long as a sense of offended
pride remained with me, I could not help thinking that he had
left me for good; but when I flung my dignity and pride to the
winds and came out on the common streets, then it seemed to me
that he too had come out: I have been finding him since the
moment I was on the road. I have no misgivings now. All this
suffering that I have gone through for his sake, the very
bitternesss of all this is giving me his company. Ah! yes, he
has come--he has held me by the hand, just as he used to do in
that chamber of darkness, when, at his touch, all my body would
start with a sudden thrill: it is the same, the same touch again!
Who says that he is not here?--Surangama, can you not see that he
has come, in silence and secret? ... Who is that there? Look,
Surangama, there is a third traveller of this dark road at this
hour of the night.
SURANGAMA. I see, it is the King of Kanchi, my Queen.
SUDARSHANA. King of Kanchi!
SURANGAMA. Don't be afraid, my Queen!
SUDARSHANA. Afraid! Why should I be afraid? The days of fear
are gone for ever for me.
KANCHI. [entering] Queen-mother, I see you two on this road! I
am a traveller of the same path as yourself. Have no fear of me,
O Queen!
SUDARSHANA. It is well, King of Kanchi, that we should be going
together, side by side--this is but right. I came on your way
when I first left my home, and now I meet you again on my way
back. Who could have dreamed that this meeting of ours would
augur so well?
KANCHI. But, Queen-mother, it is not meet that you should walk
over this road on foot. Will you permit me to get a chariot for
you?
SUDARSHANA. Oh, do not say so: I shall never be happy if I could
not on my way back home tread on the dust of the road that led me
away from my King. I would be deceiving myself if I were now to
go in a chariot.
SURANGAMA. King, you too are walking in the dust to-day: this
road has never known anybody driving his horse or chariot over
it.
SUDARSHANA. When I was the Queen, I stepped over silver and
gold--I shall have now to atone for the evil fortune of my birth
by walking over dust and bare earth. I could not have dreamed
that thus I would meet my King of common earth and dust at every
step of mine to-day.
SURANGAMA. Look, my Queen, there on the eastern horizon comes
the dawn. We have not long to walk: I see the spires of the
golden turrets of the King's palace.
[Enter GRANDFATHER]
GRANDFATHER. My child, it is dawn--at last!
SUDARSHANA. Your benedictions have given me Godspeed, and here I
am, at last.
GRANDFATHER. But do you see how ill-mannered our King is? He
has sent no chariot, no music band, nothing splendid or grand.
SUDARSHANA. Nothing grand, did you say? Look, the sky is rosy
and crimson from end to end, the air is full of the welcome of
the scent of flowers.
GRANDFATHER. Yes, but however cruel our King may be, we cannot
seek to emulate him: I cannot help feeling pain at seeing you in
this state, my child. How can we bear to see you going to the
King's palace attired in this poor and wretched attire? Wait a
little--I am running to fetch you your Queen's garments.