Page:Echoes from East and West.pdf/24

"O Fate Almighty, dost thou will to see me thus undone?
Give me mine own; where hast thou kept my loved and loving son?

"My race, O cruel Fate, is fast decaying day by day!
Or why did Kumbhakarna, too, so early pass away?

"As stout wood-cutters in a wood first cut off one by one
The boughs, and last against the tree their mighty axes run,

'So will my foemen in their wrath first lop off all my kin,
And, lastly, felling down myself, my golden island win.

'O Surpanakha! in what hour did first thine eye behold
Yon cruel crawling human snake in Dandak's woods of old?

"Me wretched! in what hour again, to set my house on fire,
Brought I yon fairy fiery nymph from Panchavati dire?

"O who shall keep the honour now of this far-honour'd line?
My hopes are gone; ere long, I see, a downfall will be mine.

"I wish I were within a wood, from man and sin apart,
Where, lone and tranquil, I could soothe the burning of my heart.

'My life is barren as a waste—no joy therein can grow;
For, he for whom I die is dead; I wish I could be so."

So saying, Ravan once again: "Good envoy, briefly tell
How sweet Virbahu bore himself, how he in battle fell."