“Obstinate fools!” exclaimed the Mighty One,
“Fate and my pleasure must be done.
And ye resist in vain!
Take your fit guerdon till we meet again!”
So saying, his vindictive hand he flung
Towards them, filled with curses; then on high
Aloft he sprung, and vanished through the Sky.
XIX. MOUNT CALASAY.
1.
THE Rajah, scattering curses as he rose,
Soared to the Swerga, and resumed his throne.
Not for his own redoubled agony,
Which now through heart and brain,
With renovated pain,
Rushed to its seat, Ladurlad breathes that groan.
That groan is for his child; he groaned to see
That she was stricken now with leprosy,
Which, as the enemy vindictive fled,
O’er all her frame with quick contagion spread.
She, wondering at events so passing strange,
And filled with hope and fear,
And joy to see the Tyrant disappear,
And glad expectance of her Glendoveer,
Perceived not in herself the hideous change.
His burning pain, she thought, had forced the groan
Her father breathed; his agonies alone
Were present to her mind: she clasped his knees,
Wept for his Curse, and did not feel her own.
2.
Nor, when she saw her plague, did her good heart,
True to itself, even for a moment fail.
“Ha, Rajah!” with disdainful smile she cries,
“Mighty and wise and wicked as thou art,
Still thy blind vengeance acts a friendly part
Shall I not thank thee for this scurf and scale
Of dire deformity, whose loathsomeness,
Surer than panoply of strongest mail,
Arms me against all foes? Oh, better so,
Better such foul disgrace,
Than that this innocent face
Should tempt thy wooing! That I need not dread:
Nor ever impious foe
Will offer outrage now, nor further woe
Will beauty draw on my unhappy head;
Safe through the unholy world may Kailyal go.”
3.
Her face, in virtuous pride,
Was lifted to the skies,
As him and his poor vengeance she defied;
But earthward, when she ceased, she turned her eyes,
As if she sought to hide
The tear which in her own despite would rise.
Did then the thought of her own Glendoveer
Call forth that natural tear?
Was it a woman’s fear,
A thought of earthly love, which troubled her?
Like yon thin cloud amid the moonlight sky,
That flits before the wind,
And leaves no trace behind,
The womanly pang passed over Kailyal’s mind.
“This is a loathsome sight to human eve!”
Half shrinking at herself, the Maiden thought;
“Will it be so to him? Oh, surely not!
The immortal Powers, who see
Through the poor wrappings of mortality,
Behold the soul, the beautiful soul, within,
Exempt from age and wasting maladies,
And undeformed, while pure and free from sin.
This is a loathsome sight to human eyes,
But not to eyes divine;
Ereenia, Son of Heaven, oh, not to thine!”
4.
The wrongful thought of fear, the womanly pain,
Had passed away; her heart was calm again.
She raised her head, expecting now to see
The Glendoveer appear:
“Where hath he fled,” quoth she,
“That he should tarry now?” Oh! had she known
Whither the adventurous Son of Heaven was flown,
Strong as her spirit was, it had not borne
The appalling thought, nor dared to hope for his return.
5.
For he in search of Siva’s throne was gone,
To tell his tale of wrong;
In search of Siva’s own abode,
The Glendoveer began his heavenly road.
Oh wild emprise! above the farthest skies
He hoped to rise!
Him who is throned beyond the reach of thought,
The Alone, the Inaccessible, he sought.
Oh wild emprise! for when, in days of yore,
For proud pre-eminence of power,
Brama and Vishnu, wild with rage, contended,
And Siva, in his might,
Their dread contention ended,
Before their sight
In form a fiery column did he tower,
Whose head above the highest height extended,
Whose base below the deepest depth descended.
Downward, its depth to sound,
Vishnu a thousand years explored
The fathomless profound,
And yet no base he found:
Upward to reach its head,
Ten myriad years the aspiring Brama soared;
And still, as up he fled,
Above him still the Immeasurable spread.
The rivals owned their Lord,
And trembled and adored.
How shall the Glendoveer attain
What Brama and what Vishnu sought in vain?
6.
Ne’er did such thought of lofty daring enter
Celestial Spirit’s mind. Oh wild adventure
That throne to find! for he must leave behind
This World, that in the centre,
Within its salt-sea girdle, lies confined;
Yea, the Seven Earths, that, each with its own ocean,
Ring clasping ring, compose the mighty round.
What power of motion
In less than endless years shall bear him there,
Along the limitless extent,
To the utmost bound of the remotest sphere?
What strength of wing
Suffice to pierce the Golden Firmament
That closes all within?
Yet he hath passed the measureless extent,
And pierced the Golden Firmament;
For Faith hath given him power, and Space and Time
Vanish before that energy sublime.
Nor doth eternal Night
And outer Darkness check his resolute flight:
By strong desire through all he makes his way,
Till Siva’s Seat appears, — behold Mount Calasay!
7.
Behold the Silver Mountain! Round about
Seven ladders stand, so high, the aching eye,
Seeking their tops in vain amid the sky,
Might deem they led from earth to highest Heaven
Ages would pass away,
And worlds with age decay,
Ere one whose patient feet, from ring to ring,
Must win their upward way,
Could reach the summit of Mount Calasay.
But that strong power that nerved his wing,
That all-surmounting will,
Intensity of faith and holiest love,
Sustained Ereenia still;
And he hath gained the plain, the sanctuary above
8.
Lo, there the Silver Bell,
That, self-sustained, hangs buoyant in the air!
Lo, the broad Table there, too bright
For mortal sight,
From whose four sides the bordering gems unite
Their harmonizing rays
In one mid fount of many-colored light!
The stream of splendor, flashing as it flows,
Plays round and feeds the stem of yon celestial Rose!
Where is the Sage whose wisdom can declare
The hidden things of that mysterious flower,
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br /> That flower which serves all mysteries to bear?
The sacred Triangle is there,
Holding the Emblem which no tongue may tell:
Is this the Heaven of Heavens, where Siva’s self doth dwell?
9.
Here first the Glendoveer
Felt his wing flag, and paused upon his flight.
Was it that fear came over him, when here
He saw the imagined throne appear?
Not so; for his immortal sight
Endured the Table’s light:
Distinctly he beheld all things around;
And doubt and wonder rose within his mind
That this was all he found.
Howbeit he lifted up his voice, and spake:
“There is oppression in the World below;
Earth groans beneath the yoke; yea, in her woe,
She asks if the Avenger’s eye is blind.
Awake, O Lord, awake!
Too long thy vengeance sleepeth. Holiest One!
Put thou thy terrors on for mercy’s sake,
And strike the blow, in justice to mankind!”
10.
So, as he prayed, intenser faith he felt:
His spirit seemed to melt
With ardent yearnings of increasing love.
Upward he turned his eyes,
As if there should be something yet above:
“Let me not, Siva, seek in vain!” he cries.
“Thou art not here; for how should these contain thee?
Thou art not here; for how should I sustain thee?
But thou, where’er thou art,
Canst hear the voice of prayer,
Canst read the righteous heart.
Thy dwelling who can tell?
Or who, O Lord, hath seen thy secret throne?
But thou art not alone,
Not unapproachable!
O all-containing Mind,
Thou who art everywhere,
Whom all who seek shall find,
Hear me, O Siva! hear the suppliant’s prayer!”
11.
So saying, up he sprung,
And struck the Bell, which self-suspended hung
Before the mystic Rose.
From side to side the silver tongue
Melodious swung, and far and wide
Soul-thrilling tones of heavenly music rung.
Abashed, confounded,
It left the Glendoveer; yea, all astounded
In overpowering fear and deep dismay:
For, when that Bell had sounded,
The Rose, with all the mysteries it surrounded,
The Bell, the Table, and Mount Calasay,
The holy Hill itself, with all thereon,
Even as a morning dream before the day
Dissolves away, they faded, and were gone.
12.
Where shall he rest his wing? where turn for flight?
For all around is Light,
Primal, essential, all-pervading Light!
Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare,
Nor eyes of Angel bear,
That Glory unimaginably bright;
The Sun himself had seemed
A speck of darkness there,
Amid that Light of Light!
13.
Down fell the Glendoveer;
Down through all regions, to our mundane sphere,
He fell: but in his ear
A Voice, which from within him came, was heard,
The indubitable word
Of Him to whom all secret things are known:
“Go, ye who suffer, go to Yamen’s throne;
He hath the remedy for every woe;
He setteth right whate’er is wrong below.”
XX. THE EMBARKATION.
1.
DOWN from the Heaven of Heavens Ereenia fell
Precipitate, yet imperceptible
His fall: nor had he cause nor thought of fear:
And when he came within this mundane sphere,
And felt that Earth was near,
The Glendoveer his azure wings expanded,
And, sloping down the sky
Toward the spot from whence he sprung on high,
There on the shore he landed.
2.
Kailyal advanced to meet him,
Not moving now as she was wont to greet him,
Joy in her eye and in her eager pace:
With a calm smile of melancholy pride
She met him now; and, turning half aside,
Her warning hand repelled the dear embrace.
3.
“Strange things, Ereenia, have befallen us here,”
The Virgin said: “the Almighty Man hath read
The lines which, traced by Nature on my brain,
There to the gifted eye
Make all my fortunes plain,
Mapping the mazes of futurity.
He sued for peace; for it is written there,
That I with him the Amreeta cup must share:
Wherefore he bade me come, and by his side
Sit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride.
I need not tell thee what reply was given:
My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven,
His impious words belied.
Thou seest his poor revenge!” So having said,
One look she glanced upon her leprous stain
Indignantly, and shook
Her head in calm disdain.
4.
“O Maid of soul divine!
O more than ever dear,
And more than ever mine!”
Replied the Glendoveer:
“He hath not read, be sure, the mystic ways
Of Fate; almighty as he is, that maze
Hath mocked his fallible sight
Said he the Amreeta cup? So far aright
The Evil One may see; for Fate displays
Her hidden things in part, and part conceals,
Baffling the wicked eye
Alike with what she hides, and what reveals,
When with unholy purpose it would pry
Into the secrets of futurity.
So may it be permitted him to see
Dimly the inscrutable decree;
For to the World below,
Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go:
Thus Siva hath expressed his will; even he,
The Holiest, hath ordained it: there, he saith,
All wrongs shall be redressed
By Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death.”
5.
Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid,
And that heroic Spirit who for them
Such flight had late essayed,
The will of Heaven obeyed:
They went their way along the road
That leads to Yamen’s dread abode.
6.
Many a day hath passed away
Since they began their arduous way,
Their way of toil and pain;
And now their weary feet attain
The Earth’s remotest bound,
Where outer Ocean girds it round.
But not like other Oceans this;
Rather it seemed a drear abyss,
Upon whose brink they stood.
Oh scene of fear! the travellers hear
The raging of the flood;
They hear how fearfully it roars:
But clouds of darker shade than night,
For ever hovering round those shores,
Hide all things from their sight;
The Sun upon that darkness pours
His unavailing light;
Nor ever Moon nor Stars display,
Through the thick shade, one guiding ray
To show the perils of the way.
7.
There, in a creek, a vessel lay:
Just on the confines of the day,
It rode at anchor in its bay,
These venturous pilgrims to convey
Strange vessel, sure, it seemed to be,
And all unfit for such wild sea!
For through its yawning side the wave
Was oozing in; the mast was frail,
And old and torn its only sail.
How may that crazy vessel brave
The billows that in wild commotion
For ever roar and rave?
How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean
O’er which eternal shadows dwell,
Whose secrets none return to tell?
8.
Well might the travellers fear to enter!
But, summoned once on that adventure,
For them was no retreat.
Nor boots it with reluctant feet
To linger on the strand:
“Aboard! aboard!”
An awful Voice, that left no choice,
Sent forth its stem command:
“Aboard! aboard!”
The travellers hear that voice in fear,
And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer,
And take their seats in silence there.
9.
Self-hoisted then, behold the sail
Expands itself before the gale!
Hands, which they cannot see, let slip
The cable of that fated Ship;
The land-breeze sends her on her way;
And, lo! they leave the living light of day!
XXI. THE WORLD’S END.
1.
SWIFT as an arrow in its flight,
The Ship shot through the incumbent night;
And they have left behind
The raging billows and the roaring wind,
The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears;
And, lo! another light
To guide their way appears,
The light of other spheres.
2.
That instant from Ladurlad’s heart and brain
The Curse was gone; he feels again
Fresh as in youth’s fair morning, and the Maid
Hath lost her leprous stain.
“The Tyrant, then, hath no dominion here!”
Starting, she cried: “oh, happy, happy hour!
We are beyond his power!”
Then, raising to the Glendoveer,
With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face,
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 153