Chapter 4Act II, Scene 1

Act II Scene 1 A room in the palace at Cowsamby. Alurca, Vasuntha. ALURCA He’ll rule Cowsamby in the end, I think. VASUNTHA Artist, be an observer too. His eyes Pursue young Vuthsa like a hunted prey And seem to measure possibility, But not for rule or for Cowsamby care. To reign’s his nature, not his will. ALURCA This man Is like some high rock that was suddenly Transformed into a thinking creature. VASUNTHA There’s His charm for Vuthsa who is soft as Spring, Fair like a hunted moon in cloud-swept skies, Luxurious like a jasmine in its leaves. ALURCA When will this Vuthsa grow to man? Hard-brained Roomunwath, deep Yougundharayan rule; The State, its arms are theirs. This boy between Like a girl’s cherished puppet stroked and dandled,

Act II, Scene 1 Chid and prescribed the postures it must keep, Moves like a rhythmic picture of delight And with his sunny smile he does it all. Now in our little kingdom with its law Of beauty and music this high silence comes And seizes on him. All our acts he rules And Vuthsa has desired one master more. VASUNTHA There is a wanton in this royal heart Who gives herself to all and all are hers. Perhaps that too is wisdom. For, Alurca, This world is other than our standards are And it obeys a vaster thought than ours, Our narrow thoughts! The fathomless desire Of some huge spirit is its secret law. It keeps its own tremendous forces penned And bears us where it wills, not where we would. Even his petty world man cannot rule. We fear, we blame; life wantons her own way, A little ashamed, but obstinate still, because We check but cannot her. O, Vuthsa’s wise! Because he seeks each thing in its own way, He enjoys. And wherefore are we at all If not to enjoy and with some costliness Get dear things done, till rude death interferes, God’s valet moves away these living dolls To quite another room and better play, — Perhaps a better! ALURCA Yet consider this. Look back upon the endless godlike line. Think of Parikshith, Janam´ejoya, think Of Suthaneke, then on our Vuthsa gaze. Glacier and rock and all Himaloy piled! What eagle peaks! Now this soft valley blooms;

Vasavadutta The cuckoo cries from branches of delight, The bee sails murmuring its low-winged desires. VASUNTHA It was to amuse himself God made the world. For He was dull alone! Therefore all things Vary to keep the secret witness pleased. How Nature knows and does her office well. What poignant oppositions she combines! Death fosters life that life may suckle death. Her certainties are snares, her dreams prevail. What little seeds she grows into huge fates, Proves with a smile her great things to be small! All things here secretly are right; all’s wrong In God’s appearances. World, thou art wisely led In a divine confusion. ALURCA The Minister Watches this man so closely, he must think There is some dangerous purpose in his mind. VASUNTHA He is the wariest of all ministers And would suspect two pigeons on a roof Of plots because they coo. ALURCA All’s possible. Vuthsa enters with Gopalaca. VUTHSA Yes, I would love to see the ocean’s vasts. Are they as grand as are the mountains dumb Where I was born and grew? Or is its voice Like the huge murmur of our forests swayed In the immense embrace of giant winds?

Act II, Scene 1 We have that in Cowsamby. GOPALACA Wilt thou show Them to me, Vindhya’s crags where forests dimly Climb down towards my Avunthy? VUTHSA We will go And hunt together the swift fleeing game Or with our shafts unking the beast of prey. GOPALACA If we could range alone wide solitudes, Not soil them with our din, not with our tread Disturb great Nature in her animal trance, Her life of mighty instincts where no stir Of the hedged restless mind has spoiled her vasts. VUTHSA It is a thing I have dreamed of. Alurca, tell The Minister that we go to hunt the deer In Vindhya’s forests on Avunthy’s verge. That’s if my will’s allowed. Alurca goes out to the outer palace. VASUNTHA He will, Vuthsa, Allow thy will. Where does it lead thee, king? VUTHSA A scourge for thee or a close gag might help. VASUNTHA A bandage for my eyes would serve as well.

Vasavadutta VUTHSA Shall we awaken in Alurca’s hands The living voices of the harp? Or willst thou That I should play the heaven-taught airs thou lov’st On the Gundhurva’s magical guitar Which lures even woodland beasts? For the elephant Comes trumpeting to the enchanted sound, A coloured blaze of beauty on the sward The peacocks dance and the snake’s brilliant hood Lifts rhythmic yearning from the emerald herb. GOPALACA Vuthsa Udaian, suffer me awhile To walk alone, for I am full of thoughts. VUTHSA Thou shouldst not be. Cannot my love atone For lost Avunthy? GOPALACA Always; but a voice Comes to me often from the haunts of old. VASUNTHA Returns no dim cloud-messenger to whisper To thy great father’s longing waiting heart Far from his banished son? GOPALACA Thy satire’s forced. VASUNTHA Thy earnest less? VUTHSA One hour, a long pale loss, I sacrifice to thy thoughts. When it has dragged past,

Act II, Scene 1 Where shall I find thee? GOPALACA Where the flowers rain Beneath the red boughs on the river’s bank. There will I walk while thou hearst harp or verse. VUTHSA Without thee neither harp nor verse can charm. Gopalaca goes. The harmony of kindred souls that seek Each other on the strings of body and mind, Is all the music for which life was born. Vasuntha, let me hear thy happy crackling, Thou fire of thorns that leapest all the day. Spring, call thy cuckoo. VASUNTHA Give me fuel then, Your green young boughs of folly for my fire. VUTHSA I give enough I think for all the world. VASUNTHA It is your trade to occupy the world. Men have made kings that folly might have food; For the court gossips over them while they live And the world gossips over them when they are dead. That they call history. But our man returns. ALURCA Do here and in all things, says the Minister, Thy pleasure. But since upon a dangerous verge This hunt will tread, thy cohorts armed shall keep The hilly intervals, himself be close To guard with vigilance his monarch’s life

Vasavadutta Against the wild beasts and what else means harm. VUTHSA That is his care; what he shall do, is good. ALURCA To lavish upon all men love and trust Shows the heart’s royalty, not the brain’s craft. VUTHSA I have found my elder brother. Grudge me not, Alurca, that delight. Thou lov’st me well? ALURCA Is it now questioned? VUTHSA Then rejoice with me That I have found my brother. Joy in my joy, Love with my love, think with my thoughts; the rest Leave to much older wiser men whose schemings Have made God’s world an office and a mart. We who are young, let us indulge our hearts. ALURCA Thou tak’st all hearts and givest thine to none, Udaian. Yet is this prince Gopalaca, This breed from Titans and from Mahasegn, Hard, stern, reserved. Does he repay thy friendship As we do? VUTHSA Love itself is sweet enough Though unreturned; and there are silent hearts. VASUNTHA Suffer this flower to climb its wayside rock.

Act II, Scene 1 Oppose not Nature’s cunning who will not Be easily refused her artist joys. Fierce deserts round the green oasis yearn And the chill lake desires the lily’s pomp. VUTHSA He is the rock, I am the flower. What part Playst thou in the woodland? VASUNTHA A thorn beneath the rose That from the heavens of desire was born And men call Vuthsa. VUTHSA Poet, satirist, sage, What other gifts keepst thou concealed within More than the many that thy outsides show? VASUNTHA I squander all and keep none, not like thee Who trad’st in honey to deceive the world. VUTHSA O, earth is honey; let me taste her all. Our rapture here is short before we go To other sweetness on some rarer height Of the upclimbing tiers that are the world.