Chitra, a Play in One Act | Page 9

mind knows no peace. Come closer to me, unattainable one!
Surrender yourself to the bonds of name and home and parentage. Let
my heart feel you on all sides and live with you in the peaceful security
of love.

Chitra
Why this vain effort to catch and keep the tints of the clouds, the dance
of the waves, the smell of the flowers?
Arjuna
Mistress mine, do not hope to pacify love with airy nothings. Give me
something to clasp, something that can last longer than pleasure, that
can endure even through suffering.
Chitra
Hero mine, the year is not yet full, and you are tired already! Now I
know that it is Heaven's blessing that has made the flower's term of life
short. Could this body of mine have drooped and died with the flowers
of last spring it surely would have died with honour. Yet, its days are
numbered, my love. Spare it not, press it dry of honey, for fear your
beggar's heart come back to it again and again with unsated desire, like
a thirsty bee when summer blossoms lie dead in the dust.
SCENE VII
Madana
TONIGHT is thy last night.
Vasanta
The loveliness of your body will return tomorrow to the inexhaustible
stores of the spring. The ruddy tint of thy lips freed from the memory
of Arjuna's kisses, will bud anew as a pair of fresh asoka leaves, and
the soft, white glow of thy skin will be born again in a hundred fragrant
jasmine flowers.
Chitra
O gods, grant me this my prayer! Tonight, in its last hour let my beauty
flash its brightest, like the final flicker of a dying flame.
Madana
Thou shalt have thy wish.
SCENE VIII
Villagers
WHO will protect us now?
Arjuna
Why, by what danger are you threatened?
Villagers
The robbers are pouring from the northern hills like a mountain flood to
devastate our village.

Arjuna
Have you in this kingdom no warden?
Villagers
Princess Chitra was the terror of all evil doers. While she was in this
happy land we feared natural deaths, but had no other fears. Now she
has gone on a pilgrimage, and none knows where to find her.
Arjuna
Is the warden of this country a woman?
Villagers
Yes, she is our father and mother in one. [Exeunt.
Enter CHITRA.
Chitra
Why are you sitting all alone?
Arjuna
I am trying to imagine what kind of woman Princess Chitra may be. I
hear so many stories of her from all sorts of men.
Chitra
Ah, but she is not beautiful. She has no such lovely eyes as mine, dark
as death. She can pierce any target she will, but not our hero's heart.
Arjuna
They say that in valour she is a man, and a woman in tenderness.
Chitra
That, indeed, is her greatest misfortune. When a woman is merely a
woman; when she winds herself round and round men's hearts with her
smiles and sobs and services and caressing endearments; then she is
happy. Of what use to her are learning and great achievements? Could
you have seen her only yesterday in the court of the Lord Shiva's
temple by the forest path, you would have passed by without deigning
to look at her. But have you grown so weary of woman's beauty that
you seek in her for a man's strength?
With green leaves wet from the spray of the foaming waterfall, I have
made our noonday bed in a cavern dark as night. There the cool of the
soft green mosses thick on the black and dripping stone, kisses your
eyes to sleep. Let me guide you thither.
Arjuna
Not today, beloved.
Chitra

Why not today?
Arjuna
I have heard that a horde of robbers has neared the plains. Needs must I
go and prepare my weapons to protect the frightened villagers.
Chitra
You need have no fear for them. Before she started on her pilgrimage,
Princess Chitra had set strong guards at all the frontier passes.
Arjuna
Yet permit me for a short while to set about a Kshatriya's work. With
new glory will I ennoble this idle arm, and make of it a pillow more
worthy of your head.
Chitra
What if I refuse to let you go, if I keep you entwined in my arms?
Would you rudely snatch yourself free and leave me? Go then! But you
must know that the liana, once broken in two, never joins again. Go, if
your thirst is quenched. But, if not, then remember that the goddess of
pleasure is fickle, and waits for no man. Sit for a while, my lord! Tell
me what uneasy thoughts tease you. Who occupied your mind today? Is
it Chitra?
Arjuna
Yes, it is Chitra. I wonder in fulfilment of what vow she has