Savitri Book 5 Canto 3 - Satyavan and Savitri
Thus Satyavan spoke first to Savitri: ... How art thou named among the sons of men?||103.4|| I have heard strange voices cross the ether’s waves, The Centaur’s wizard song has thrilled my ear; I glimpsed the Apsaras bathing in the pools And saw the wood-nymphs peering through the leaves; The winds have shown to me their trampling lords, I have beheld the princes of the Sun Burning in thousand-pillared houses of light. ||103.10|| So now my mind could dream and my heart fear... Thou drov’st thy horses from the Thunderer’s worlds. ||103.11||
Musing she answered: I am Savitri, Princess of Madra. Who art thou? What name Musical on earth expresses thee to men? ||103.21|| What trunk of kings watered by fortunate streams Has flowered at last upon one happy branch? ||103.22||
And Satyavan replied to Savitri: In days when yet his sight looked clear on life, King Dyumatsena once, the Shalwa, reigned... ||103.24|| Heaven’s brilliant gods recalled their careless gifts, Took from blank eyes their glad and helping ray... ||103.25|| He sojourns in two solitudes, within And in the solemn rustle of the woods. ||103.26| Son of that king, I, Satyavan, have lived Contented, for not yet of thee aware, In my high peopled loneliness of spirit.... ||103.27||
A visioned spell pursued my boyhood’s hours; ||103.32|| The neighing pride of rapid life that roams Wind-maned through our pastures, on my seeing mood Cast shapes of swiftness; trooping spotted deer Against the vesper sky became a song Of evening to the silence of the soul. ||103.35|| I caught for some eternal eye the sudden Kingfisher flashing to a darkling pool; A slow swan silvering the azure lake, A shape of magic whiteness, sailed through dream; ||103.36|| Pranked butterflies, the conscious flowers of air, The brilliant long bills in their vivid dress, The peacock scattering on the breeze his moons Painted my memory like a frescoed wall. ||103.37||
I glimpsed the presence of the One in all. ||103.42|| But still there lacked the last transcendent power... ||103.43|| I shall feel the World-Mother in thy golden limbs And hear her wisdom in thy sacred voice. ||103.45||
“Speak more to me, speak more, O Satyavan, Speak of thyself and all thou art within; ||103.48|| Speak till a light shall come into my heart And my moved mortal mind shall understand What all the deathless being in me feels. ||103.49|| It knows that thou art he my spirit has sought Amidst earth’s thronging visages and forms Across the golden spaces of my life.” ||103.50||
And Satyavan like a replying harp To the insistent calling of a flute Answered her questioning and let stream to her His heart in many-coloured waves of speech: O golden princess, perfect Savitri... ||103.51|| Wilt thou not make this mortal bliss thy sphere? ||103.73|| Descend, O happiness, with thy moon-gold feet, Enrich earth’s floors upon whose sleep we lie. ||103.74|| “O Satyavan, I have heard thee and I know; I know that thou and only thou art he.” ||104.2|| Then down she came from her high carven car Descending with a soft and faltering haste; ||104.3|| Her gleaming feet upon the green gold sward Scattered a memory of wandering beams And lightly pressed the unspoken desire of earth Cherished in her too brief passing by the soil. ||104.4||
Then flitting like pale brilliant moths her hands Took from the sylvan verge’s sunlit arms A load of their jewel faces’ clustering swarms, Companions of the spring-time and the breeze. ||104.5|| A candid garland set with simple forms Her rapid fingers taught a flower song, The stanzaed movement of a marriage hymn. ||104.6||
A sacrament of joy in treasuring palms She brought, flower-symbol of her offered life, Then with raised hands that trembled a little now At the very closeness that her soul desired, This bond of sweetness, their bright union’s sign, She laid on the bosom coveted by her love. ||104.8||
As if inclined before some gracious god Who has out of his mist of greatness shone To fill with beauty his adorer’s hours, She bowed and touched his feet with worshipping hands; And made her body the room of his delight, Her beating heart a remembrancer of bliss. ||104.9||
He bent to her and took into his own Their married yearning joined like folded hopes.... ||104.10||
As if a whole rich world suddenly possessed, Wedded to all he had been, became himself, An inexhaustible joy made his alone, He gathered all Savitri into his clasp. ||104.10||
Then down the narrow path where their lives had met He led and showed to her her future world, Love’s refuge and corner of happy solitude. ||105.1||
Once more she mounted on the carven car And under the ardour of a fiery noon Less bright than the splendour of her thoughts and dreams She sped swift-reined, swift-hearted but still saw In still lucidities of sight’s inner world Through the cool scented wood’s luxurious gloom On shadowy paths between great rugged trunks Pace towards a tranquil clearing Satyavan. ||105.8||
Home
The Mother
Meditations On Savitri
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.