The King of the Dark Chamber Part 3

GRANDFATHER. What did you see displayed on his banner?

k.u.mBHA. It had a red Kimshuk flower painted on it--the bright and glittering scarlet dazzled my eyes.

GRANDFATHER. My King has a thunderbolt within a lotus painted on his flag.

k.u.mBHA. But every one is saying, the King is out in this festival: every one.

GRANDFATHER. Why, so he is, of course: but he has no heralds, no army, no retinue, no music bands or lights to accompany him.

k.u.mBHA. So none could recognise him in his incognito, it seems.

GRANDFATHER. Perhaps there are a few that can.

k.u.mBHA. And those that can recognise him--does the King grant them whatever they ask for?

GRANDFATHER. But they never ask for anything. No beggar will ever know the King. The greater beggar appears like the King to the eyes of the lesser beggar. O fool, the man that has come out to-day attired in crimson and gold to beg from you--it is him whom you are trumpeting as your King! ... Ah, there comes my mad friend! Oh come, my brothers! we cannot spend the day in idle wrangling and prating--let us now have some mad frolic, some wild enjoyment!

[Enter the MAD FRIEND, who sings]

Do you smile, my friends? Do you laugh, my brothers? I roam in search of the golden stag! Ah yes, the fleet-foot vision that ever eludes me!

Oh, he flits and glimpses like a flash and then is gone, the untamed rover of the wilds! Approach him and he is afar in a trice, leaving a cloud of haze and dust before thy eyes!

Yet I roam in search of the golden stag, though I may never catch him in these wilds! Oh, I roam and wander through woods and fields and nameless lands like a restless vagabond, never caring to turn my back.

You all come and buy in the marketplace and go back to your homes laden with goods and provisions: but me the wild winds of unscalable heights have touched and kissed--Oh, I know not when or where!

I have parted with my all to get what never has become mine!

And yet think my moanings and my tears are for the things I thus have lost!

With a laugh and a song in my heart I have left all sorrow and grief far behind me: Oh, I roam and wander through woods and fields and nameless lands--never caring to turn my vagabond's back!

II

[A DarkChamber. QUEEN SUDARSHANA. Her Maid of Honour, SURANGAMA]

SUDARSHANA. Light, light! Where is light? Will the lamp never be lighted in this chamber?

SURANGAMA. My Queen, all your other rooms are lighted--will you never long to escape from the light into a dark room like this?

SUDARSHANA. But why should this room be kept dark?

SURANGAMA. Because otherwise you would know neither light nor darkness.

SUDARSHANA. Living in this dark room you have grown to speak darkly and strangely--I cannot understand you, Surangama. But tell me, in what part of the palace is this chamber situated? I cannot make out either the entrance or the way out of this room.

SURANGAMA. This room is placed deep down, in the very heart of the earth. The King has built this room specially for your sake.

SUDARSHANA. Why, he has no dearth of rooms--why need he have made this chamber of darkness specially for me?

SURANGAMA. You can meet others in the lighted rooms: but only in this dark room can you meet your lord.

SUDARSHANA. No, no--I cannot live without light--I am restless in this stifling dark. Surangama, if you can bring a light into this room, I shall give you this necklace of mine.

SURANGAMA. It is not in my power, O Queen. How can I bring light to a place which he would have kept always dark!

SUDARSHANA. Strange devotion! And yet, is it not true that the King punished your father?

SURANGAMA. Yes, that is true. My father used to gamble. All the young men of the country used to gather at my father's house-and they used to drink and gamble.

SUDARSHANA. And when the King sent away your father in exile, did it not make you feel bitterly oppressed?

SURANGAMA. Oh, it made me quite furious. I was on the road to ruin and destruction: when that path was closed for me, I seemed left without any support, without any succour or shelter. I raged and raved like a wild beast in a cage--how I wanted to tear every one to pieces in my powerless anger!

SUDARSHANA. But how did you get this devotion towards that same King?

SURANGAMA . How can I tell? Perhaps I could rely and depend on him because he was so hard, so pitiless!

SUDARSHANA. When did this change of feeling take place?

SURANGAMA. I could not tell you--I do not know that myself. A day came when all the rebel in me knew itself beaten, and then my whole nature bowed down in humble resignation on the dust of the earth. And then I saw ... I saw that he was as matchless in beauty as in terror. Oh. I was saved, I was rescued.

SUDARSHANA. Tell me, Surangama, I implore you, won't you tell me what is the King like to look at? I have not seen him yet for a single day. He comes to me in darkness, and leaves me in this dark room again. How many people have I not asked--but they all return vague and dark answers--it seems to me that they all keep back something.

SURANGAMA. To tell you the truth, Queen, I could not say well what he is like. No--he is not what men call handsome.

SUDARSHANA. You don't say so? Not handsome!

SURANGAMA. No, my Queen, he is not handsome. To call him beautiful would be to say far too little about him.

SUDARSHANA. All your words are like that--dark, strange, and vague. I cannot understand what you mean.

SURANGAMA. No, I will not call him handsome. And it is because he is not beautiful that he is so wonderful, so superb, so miraculous!

SUDARSHANA. I do not quite understand you--though I like to hear you talk about him. But I must see him at any cost. I do not even remember the day when I was married to him. I have heard mother say that a wise man came before my marriage and said, "He who will wed your daughter is without a second on this earth."

How often have I asked her to describe his appearance to me, but she only answers vaguely, and says she cannot say--she saw him through a veil, faintly and obscurely. But if he is the best among men, how can I sit still without seeing him?

SURANGAMA. Do you not feel a faint breeze blowing?

SUDARSHANA. A breeze? Where?

SURANGAMA. Do you not smell a soft perfume?