महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

iii. 41⁷—] Bhavabhūti — Uttara-Rāma-Charita [56
Sītā hastily snatches away [her hand] and stands aloof.
Rāma—Oh, fie! What a folly!
That hand of hers, [tender] like foliage and tremulous and per-
spiring¹—[that hand], in my listlessness, I have all of a sudden let
slip from my own hand, [no less] tremulous and perspiring! 42
Sītā—Why, alas! Even yet—with his eyes [now] inert [and now] rolling
unsteadily all about—he has not yet regained his composure!
Tamasā, observing [Sītā], with affection—
With a thrill of joy over her moist and tremulous body, my dear
child [Sītā] has, at her dear Lord's touch, become like a branch
of kadamba, blooming with buds as when washed by early
showers and shaken by [gentle] breezes. 43
Sītā, to herself—Why! For this loss of self-control I have really been put to
shame by the honoured Tamasā! What indeed will she think [of me but
this]?—Such [was] thy abandonment and such [is] thy [persistent]
attachment!
Rāma, looking all about [him]—Alas! Is she then really not there? ²
Why, I say, thou pitiless daughter of the King of Videha!
Sītā—Pitiless I certainly must be, in that, seeing thee in this thy plight,
I yet continue to live.
Rāma—Where then art thou, Queen? Take pity on me! Do not, I beg,
abandon me in this plight!
Sītā—Why, noble my Lord! Quite otherwise stand the facts! ³
Vāsantī—Please, Sire, with your own proper all-transcendent courage, do, I
beg you, restrain-and-compose yourself; your self-deception has gone beyond
all bounds. How, [how] could my dear friend [Sītā] have been here?
Rāma—Clearly then she is not here; otherwise how could even Vāsantī
have failed to see her? Can this then have been a dream? But I was
not dreaming; for, sleep has fled [long] away from Rāma! Undoubtedly
then this must be that almighty Self-deception which was induced by my
repeated meditations [upon her] and which persistently clings to me.
Sītā—'Tis I then, the ruthless one, that have caused his deception!
Vāsantī—Behold, Sire!
Broken to pieces by Jaṭāyus, here is the iron-chariot of the grand-
son of Pulastya [Rāvaṇa]. Behold these, in front [of the chariot],
the bony remains of the goblin-faced donkeys.⁴ Here on this
side are the wings of Jaṭāyu clipped off by [Rāvaṇa's] sword.
¹ When the hands of lovers meet, perspira- ² Cp. page 47, note 2.
tion at the finger-tips is one of the signs ³ It is you that have abandoned me.
of their love—such is the poetic con- ⁴ Yoked to Rāvaṇa's chariot.
vention.