Canto 28 - On the Verge
Stunned as guards all kept silent
Had then Seetha yet second thought.
Recalled as she Ravan’s threat
Thought she fit to end her life.
Wonder didn’t I drop dead now
Ravan though scared me to death!
If it were not made of stone
Why wouldn’t sorrow break my heart?
Better on my own end my life
Fiends all here sure skin me live.
Fails to turn up if my Lord
Bound to cruel Ravan then
Like a surgeon at his work
Turn his scalpel on my frame.
Since the outer limit he gave
Me to lean my mind on him
Would be at hand in two months
Feel I like one on death row
To be led for her hanging
One fine morning to gallows.
How can ever I tell my folk
Fate mine is like boat that caught
In the storm of high seas now.
It’s by craving golden deer
Brought I ruin on all of us.
Looks like ill-fate was at work
To make me lose my common sense.
Thou all-knowing O my Lord
How thou fail to come to know
Me that Ravan vowed to kill?
My heart though is set on thee
It’s as though thou forsook me.
O my Lord, how come thou
Thought it fit to ignore me!
When thou regain crown thine soon
Won’t thou regale with new queens?
But thy Seetha likes to end
Life hers as thy faithful one.
Loyal here all to Ravan
Who would poison me procure?
Loyal here all to Ravan
Who would poison me procure?
Wavered as her hapless mind
So she wandered for low branch.
In her bid to hang herself
Coiled she her hair that long.
Thought she dearly of her man
And her beloved brother-in-law.
As she was to take the plunge
Paused she finding omens some good.