The King of the Dark Chamber | Page 6

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