Chereads / Sundara Kānda: Hanuman's Odyssey / Chapter 26 - Wandering Thoughts

Chapter 26 - Wandering Thoughts

Sense of respect for her man

Made her position all the worse.

Having lost her nerve in time

Cried she like a hapless child.

With the intent to snare me

Cruel Ravan lured my man

With that golden deer I craved.

That thy canny Ravan made

Me the captive of thee folk

Taunt as thou by sadist pranks

Intent have I none to live.

Of what avail is my life now

Useless since it's to my Lord.

Seems my heart is made of steel

Or else grief mine sundered same.

Sans Ram life is leper like

Since I nurse it nonetheless

What a worthless woman am I?

What a man is my Lord Ram

Sans him what doth life portend?

How I wish thou kill me now

Bear I can this pain no more.

Not even with mile long pole

Touch I would that wretched Ravan.

Scorned by me as all the way

What a shameless man is he

So to crave for hand of mine?

No way I would turn to him

Why thou waste thy time on me?

Wonder how my wondrous man

Came to spare this beastly man!

On his own did slay my Lord

Demons fourteen thousand once.

What threat Ravan would then pose

To my Lord who killed those fiends?

He who slain Viradha then

Would he fail to save me now?

True it's no mean task to come

To Ravan's land in midst of seas

But can one ever stop my man?

Still I wonder why Rama

Fails to come to my rescue!

Looks like my Lord is clueless

Where his beloved wife is held,

If not for that wouldn't he chase

Ravan all the way to hell?

When he took him in mid-air

Clipped as Jataayu's wings Ravan

Who then Rama makes privy

It was Ravan that snared me!

How I owe my gratitude

To that noble bird so old

Who fought Ravan for my sake.

Should Rama get wind of me

Won't he descend on this land

Whirlwind like to suck Ravan?

Won't he turn on his wrath then

On the demonic Ravan's force?

Won't thus Lankan women all get

Measure for measure of my pain then?

One and all of Ravan's men

Would find too hot to handle

Ram in battle with Lakshman.

Won't all funeral pyres redden

Skies of Lanka for days on?

It's all Ravan's mindlessness

Brings which Lanka to the brink.

Won't I see omens portend

Lanka's fall in near future?

Bites as Ravan battle dust

Brings that Lanka to nadir.

As thy men all go to hell

Won't thee then all pine for them?

With no male to caress thee

Wail all thee in every hearth.

Comes all this true when Rama

Learns here Ravan confines me.

Lands as Ram in hot pursuit

Ravan would have no respite.

Naïve is Ravan for he gloats

That he kept me on death row.

Won't he shortly come to know

That he himself dug his grave?

Deserve demons no more now

Graves than mass in barren lands.

Having put a brave face thus

Gripped was Seetha yet by doubts!

Can I come to see my Ram

Should vile Ravan keeps his word

And gets served me for breakfast?

Might my Lord have thought I died

Or else wouldn't he scan all earth?

Taking me for dead and gone

Man mine would have given up life.

Won't he gladden gods all there

Stay with his in heaven of theirs?

Would a godly man like Ram

Need to keep his woman in mind?

Out of sight is out of mind

Maybe norm with all humans,

With his sense of fairness Ram

Won't he cherish his life with me?

Wonder how I met this fate

Being wife of such great soul!

Turned as void for his loss

Why hanker for life I now?

Having lost the will to fight

What if Ram 'n Lakshman too

Penance to taken in despair!

Who knows wily Ravan didn't

Contrive death of Ram and him.

See I no end of misery

Carry why now more of it?

Come I nowhere near yogis

For whom joys and sorrows

Meaning have none of their own.

But the rest all gloat fortune

And get shaken by hard times.

Ram as is not there to guide

Why not I take my own life?