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

57] Act III, The Shadow — Translation [—iii. 46⁶
From here the enemy [Rāvaṇa], lifting up Sītā all blazing [with
ire], the enemy—even like a [black] rain-cloud gleaming (antaḥ)
with the tremulous flashes of lightning—rose up into the sky. 44
Sītā, in alarm—Noble my Lord! Our father [Jaṭāyu] is being killed—
And he is carrying me too away! Save me!
Rāma, swiftly rising—You wretch, you robber of father [Jaṭāyu's] life
Where will you escape?
Vāsantī—Why, King! You [are] the fire that has consumed the race of
Demons: can there still exist any object for your [avenging] wrath?
Sītā—Forsooth! I came near losing [all] my wits!
Rāma—Much to the purpose indeed are these my [useless] rantings now!
Remedies being available, through the exploits of heroes it [that
earlier separation] became [for them] a source of constant and
engrossing occupation, and for the world a theme for its wondering
admiration: such was my [earlier] separation from my fair-eyed
[Sītā]; and it did indeed come to an end with the slaying of my
enemy [Rāvaṇa]: but how am I to endure, all in silence, this
[my present separation,] which has no remedies and knows no
end? 45
Sītā—Knows no end?—then alas for me!
Rāma—Woe and alas!
Where even my friendship with the mighty King of the Monkeys
[Sugrīva] avails not—where [equally] unavailing is the valour
of the Monkeys themselves as well as the talents of even a
Jāmbavant¹—where even the son of the Wind [Māruti] is denied
access, and where even Nala,² the son of the Architect of the
universe, is unable to construct a path—where even the arrows
of the son of Sumitrā [Lakshmaṇa] cannot penetrate: in what
region then [so inaccessible] art thou, my dearest? 46
Sītā—So [a time has come when] I must prize more highly my earlier
separation!
Rāma—Dear Vāsantī, nothing but grief can the sight of Rāma now bring
to his friends. How long then must I keep you weeping? Permit me to
go, therefore.
Sītā, leaning upon Tamasā in agony and dejection—Honoured Tamasā!
[Look!] My noble Lord is going away!
Tamasā—Compose thyself, child, compose thyself. Let us then, likewise,
¹ Did signal service to Rāma first during the ² Constructed the bridge between India and
expedition in search of Sītā, and later in Laṅkā (Ceylon).
the war at Laṅkā.
8 [H.O.S. 21]