उत्तररामचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी व्याख्या)

230 TRANSLATION OF [IV. 5–
hearted, indeed!* (Verse 5) Why did you bear, O cruel
one, the destruction in that manner of that daughter of yours
whose greatness you the fire, the sages, Vasiṣṭha's wife and
Gaṅgā, nay even the divine sun, the progenitor of Raghu's
race himself, knew, whom you brought forth as the goddess of
speech did learning and who herself was of divine rank like
any of the preceding?
(Behind the curtain) This way, this way, your exalted
ladyship and great queen.
Janaka—(Looking) Ha! the revered Arundhatī, with
Gṛṣṭi showing her the way. (rising up) But whom could
he mean by great queen? (observing) Ah, ah! How is it that
she is my dear friend Kausalyā, the lawfully wedded wife of
the great king Daśaratha? Who could believe that it was she?
(Verse 6) She was in the house of Daśaratha like the
goddess of prosperity. Or rather she was the goddess of
prosperity herself, what need of the particle of comparison?
Alas! that very lady has become as it were a changed being by
the power of fate, a strange being of grief all compact, alas!
the reverse of destiny! (Verse 7) The sight of that very
person, who was formerly an embodied feast to my eyes, has
now become intolerable like brine to a wound.
(Then enter Arundhatī, Kausalyā and Chamberlain)
Arundhatī—I tell thee the command of the spiritual
guide of thy family addressed to thee was this—thou must
come in person and see Videha's king—it was for this reason
that I was sent, then why this great hesitation at every step?
Kanchuki—Queen! fortify thyself. I request thee to
comply with the injunction of the revered Vasiṣṭha.
Kausalyā—The necessity of beholding the lord of Mithilā
at such a time makes all my sorrows break out again at once.
I cannot compose my heart, the main roots of which are
cracking.
Arundhatī—What doubt is there about this? (Verse 8)
The sorrows of mortals, produced by separation from relations,
though continually felt, become at the sight of some very dear
person intolerable, and surge around us as if with a thousand
streams.
*In the text this sentence has by oversight been printed above
verse 4 instead of below it.