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Read Ebook: The Curse of Kehama Volume 1 (of 2) by Southey Robert
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TO VOLUME FIRST.
Notes Footnotes
??????? ??? ?????? ??????????, ???? ?????? ???????? ????? ????, ??? ???????? ????? ??????. ???. ????.
For I will for no man's pleasure Change a syllable or measure; Pedants shall not tie my strains To our antique poets' veins; Being born as free as these, I will sing as I shall please. George Wither.
MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES.
BRAMA, the Creator.
VEESHNOO, the Preserver.
SEEVA, the Destroyer.
These form the Trimourtee, or Trinity, as it has been called, of the Bramins. The allegory is obvious, but it has been made for the Trimourtee, not the Trimourtee for the allegory; and these Deities are regarded by the people as three distinct and personal Gods. The two latter have at this day their hostile sects of worshippers; that of Seeva is the most numerous; and in this Poem, Seeva is represented as Supreme among the Gods. This is the same God whose name is variously written Seeb, Sieven and Siva, Chiven by the French, Xiven by the Portugueze, and whom European writers sometimes denominate Eswara, Iswaren, Mahadeo, Mahadeva, Rutren,--according to which of his thousand and eight names prevailed in the country where they obtained their Information.
INDRA, God of the Elements.
The SWERGA, his Paradise,--one of the Hindoo heavens.
YAMEN, Lord of Hell, and Judge of the Dead.
PADALON, Hell,--under the Earth, and, like the Earth, of an octagon shape; its eight gates are guarded by as many Gods.
MARRIATALY, the Goddess who is chiefly worshipped by the lower casts.
POLLEAR, or Ganesa,--the Protector of Travellers. His statues are placed in the highways, and sometimes in a small lonely sanctuary, in the streets and in the fields.
CASYAPA, the Father of the Immortals.
DEVETAS, The Inferior Deities.
SURAS, Good Spirits.
ASURAS, Evil Spirits, or Devils.
GLENDOVEERS, the most beautiful of the Good Spirits, the Grindouvers of Sonnerat.
THE CURSE OF KEHAMA.
ARVALAN. Art thou not powerful, . . . even like a God? And must I, through my years of wandering, Shivering and naked to the elements, In wretchedness await The hour of Yamen's wrath? I thought thou wouldst embody me anew. Undying as I am, . . . Yea, re-create me! . . . Father, is this all! This all! and thou Almighty!
ARVALAN. Only the sight of vengeance. Give me that! Vengeance, full, worthy vengeance! . . . not the stroke Of sodden punishment, . . . no agony That spends itself and leaves the wretch at rest, But lasting long revenge.
KEHAMA. What, boy? is that cup sweet? then take thy fill!
CASYAPA. What if the maid be sinful? If her ways Were ways of darkness, and her death predoom'd To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon Hath turn'd her face away, Unwilling to behold The unhappy end of guilt?
EREENIA. Then what a lie, my Sire, were written here, In these fair characters! And she had died, Sure proof of purer life and happier doom, Now in the moonlight, in the eye of Heaven, If I had left so fair a flower to fade. But thou, . . . all knowing as thou art, Why askest thou of me? O Father, oldest, holiest, wisest, best, To whom all things are plain, Why askest thou of me?
CASYAPA. Knowest thou Kehama?
EREENIA. The Almighty Man! Who knows not him and his tremendous power? The Tyrant of the Earth, The Enemy of Heaven!
CASYAPA. Fearest thou the Rajah?
EREENIA. He is terrible!
CASYAPA. Yea, he is terrible! such power hath he, That hope hath entered Hell. The Asuras and the spirits of the damn'd Acclaim their Hero; Yamen, with the might Of Godhead, scarce can quell The rebel race accurst; Half from their beds of torture they uprise, And half uproot their chains. Is there not fear in Heaven? The souls that are in bliss suspend their joy; The danger hath disturb'd The calm of Deity, And Brama fears, and Veeshnoo turns his face In doubt toward Seeva's throne.
EREENIA. I have seen Indra tremble at his prayers, And at his dreadful penances turn pale. They claim and wrest from Seeva power so vast, That even Seeva's self, The Highest, cannot grant and be secure.
CASYAPA. And darest thou, Ereenia, brave The Almighty Tyrant's power?
EREENIA. I brave him, Father! I?
CASYAPA. Darest thou brave his vengeance? . . . for if not, Take her again to earth, Cast her before the tyger in his path, Or where the death-dew-dropping tree May work Kehama's will.
EREENIA. Never!
CASYAPA. Then meet his wrath! for he, even he, Hath set upon this worm his wanton foot.
EREENIA. I knew her not, how wretched and how fair, When here I wafted her: . . . poor Child of Earth, Shall I forsake thee, seeing thee so fair, So wretched? O my Father, let the maid Dwell in the Sacred Grove.
CASYAPA. That must not be, For Force and Evil then would enter here; Ganges, the holy stream which cleanseth sin, Would flow from hence polluted in its springs, And they who gasp upon its banks in death, Feel no salvation. Piety and peace And Wisdom, these are mine; but not the power Which could protect her from the Almighty Man; Nor when the spirit of dead Arvalan Should persecute her here to glut his rage, To heap upon her yet more agony, And ripen more damnation for himself.
EREENIA. Dead Arvalan?
CASYAPA. All power to him, whereof The disembodied spirit in its state Of weakness could be made participant, Kehama hath assign'd, until his days Of wandering shall be numbered.
EREENIA. Look! she drinks The gale of healing from the blessed Groves. She stirs, and lo! her hand Hath touch'd the Holy River in its source, Who would have shrunk if aught impure were nigh.
CASYAPA. The Maiden, of a truth, is pure from sin.
EREENIA. Here, Maiden, rest in peace, And I will guard thee, feeble as I am. The Almighty Rajah shall not harm thee here, While Indra keeps his throne.
KAILYAL. Alas, thou fearest him! Immortal as thou art, thou fearest him! I thought that death had sav'd me from his power; Not even the dead are safe.
EREENIA. Long years of life and happiness, O Child of Earth, be thine! From death I sav'd thee, and from all thy foes Will save thee, while the Swerga is secure.
KAILYAL. Not me alone, O gentle Deveta! I have a father suffering upon earth, A persecuted, wretched, poor, good man, For whose strange misery There is no human help, And none but I dare comfort him Beneath Kehama's curse. O gentle Deveta, protect him too!
EREENIA. Come, plead thyself to Indra! words like thine May win their purpose, rouse his slumbering heart, And make him yet put forth his arm to wield The thunder, while the thunder is his own.
EREENIA. Hear me, O Indra! On the lower earth I found this child of man, by what mishap I know not, lying in the lap of death. Aloft I bore her to our Father's grove; Not having other thought, than when the gales Of bliss had heal'd her, upon earth again To leave its lovely daughter. Other thoughts Arose, when Casyapa declar'd her fate; For she is one who groans beneath the power Of the dread Rajah, terrible alike To men and Gods. His son, dead Arvalan, Arm'd with a portion, Indra, of thy power Already wrested from thee, persecutes The Maid, the helpless one, the innocent. What then behov'd me but to waft her here To my own Bower of Bliss? what other choice? The spirit of foul Arvalan, not yet Hath power to enter here; here thou art yet Supreme, and yet the Swerga is thine own.
INDRA. No child of man, Ereenia, in the Bowers Of Bliss may sojourn, till he hath put off His mortal part; for on mortality Time and Infirmity and Death attend, Close followers they, and in their mournful train Sorrow and Pain and Mutability: Did they find entrance here, we should behold Our joys, like earthly summers, pass away. Those joys perchance may pass; a stronger hand May wrest my sceptre, and unparadise The Swerga; . . . but, Ereenia, if we fall, Let it be Fate's own arm that casts us down, We will not rashly hasten and provoke The blow, nor bring ourselves the ruin on.
EREENIA. Fear courts the blow. Fear brings the ruin on. Needs must the chariot-wheels of Destiny Crush him who throws himself before their track, Patient and prostrate.
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