Chereads / Sundara Kānda: Hanuman's Odyssey / Chapter 30 - Hanuman’s Dilemma

Chapter 30 - Hanuman’s Dilemma

Picture perfect of Seetha

From his hiding got Hanuman.

Divined having Seetha thus

Gloated Hanuman his fortune.

Hoping to see Rama's wife

Roam as my peers world over

Blessed am I that gods all willed

It's me but who finds her now.

Having come to Ravan's land

Won't my spying aid Rama?

Privy if to ins and outs

Of the fortress of Lanka

Won't that come all so handy

For Lord Ram to win this war?

Isn't lament pulling her

How to infuse hope in her!

Worry she had none of yore

Neck deep now she in sorrow

Won't I owe it to my Lord

Console should I his beloved.

Were I to fail to infuse hope

In the hapless Rama's spouse

Of what avail this trip mine?

Fail if I to inform her

Rama's intent to reach her

In her state of helplessness

Won't I leave her high and dry?

Truly it's my chance of life

Make I could Ram feel at ease

With the news of her welfare.

How to make it to Seetha

Encircled by Ravan's guards?

Fail if I to sound her now

In her hapless state of mind

Might end her life as it dawns.

Fail if I to speak to her

What am I to tell her man?

Were I to go back to Rama

Without a word from his beloved

Won't that make him frustrated?

Fail if I were to lift her

Before we close in on Ravan

Won't she bring her life to close?

Why rush back to Kishkindha

Why not find I ways 'n means

To appraise her of Rama's plans.

Speak I might as well to her

To make her know there all to know.

Were I to converse in Sanskrit

Might she take me for Ravan

In the guise of Rama's friend.

Let me talk in native slang

That she takes me for vanar.

In her state of shock Seetha

See might in me weird creature.

Fearing Ravan came in disguise

What if Seetha starts shouting?

With the knives all drawn out now

Won't guards all those gherao me?

Might they as well try to kill

Me to serve as mid-day meal.

Well, would they find me sitting duck

Won't I jump from branch to branch.

As I go on gaining size

Won't they shiver all down their spines?

Forces to fetch to rein me

Won't they all to Ravan run?

Won't then Ravan send his force

Chance that gives me to take them.

But in that sea of his army

How to find an escape route?

If I were to get captured

Fail I would to contact her,

So she fails to get the wind

Of the state of Rama's mind?

Seetha as would stay perturbed

Won't that make my trip wasted?

Keeps that Rama in darkness

Place where Ravan confined her.

Were I to get killed or captured

Leaves that Rama in square one.

Can one Rama find to cross

Sea this vast to reach Seetha?

Take I can all Ravan's men

But that drags on for so long

Thus I can't go back in time.

How can one ever zero on

One who wins the war on hand

Gauge I till width of the gulf

Wise it not to go for jump.

If I were to turn my tail

How would Seetha get my trial,

Were I to try to talk to her

Won't I have a war on hand?

Won't the success of errands

Come to depend on the one

Vested who is with the same?

Won't the best of well-laid plans

Go awry in hands of those

That lack tact to tackle them?

Better I fail not Rama's cause

With some thoughtless act of mine.

How to make her take it cool

That me her man sent for her!

In the hearing of her now

Mutter if I would Rama's tale

Might it as well dawn on her

It was her Lord that sent me.

Won't my words in praise of Ram

Bring back memories of their time?

So to sing then Rama's tale

In the hearing of his spouse

Perched then Hanuman on low branch.