Scene 2 - Page 2

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 not handsome. To call him
beautiful would be to say far too little about him.

SUDARSHANA. All your words are like that--dark, strange, and
vague. I cannot understand what you mean.

SURANGAMA. No, I will not call him handsome. And it is because
he is not beautiful that he is so wonderful, so superb, so
miraculous!

SUDARSHANA. I do not quite understand you--though I like to hear
you talk about him. But I must see him at any cost. I do not
even remember the day when I was married to him. I have heard
mother say that a wise man came before my marriage and said, "He
who will wed your daughter is without a second on this earth."
How often have I asked her to describe his appearance to me, but
she only answers vaguely, and says she cannot say--she saw him
through a veil, faintly and obscurely. But if he is the best
among men, how can I sit still without seeing him?

SURANGAMA. Do you not feel a faint breeze blowing?

SUDARSHANA. A breeze? Where?

SURANGAMA. Do you not smell a soft perfume?

SUDARSHANA. No, I don't.

SURANGAMA. The large door has opened ... he is coming; my King
is coming in.

SUDARSHANA. How can you perceive when he comes?

SURANGAMA. I cannot say: I seem to hear his footsteps in my own
heart. Being his servant of this dark chamber, I have developed
a sense--I can know and feel without seeing.

SUDARSHANA. Would that I had this sense too, Surangama!

SURANGAMA. You will have it, O Queen ... this sense will awaken
in you one day. Your longing to have a sight of him makes you
restless, and therefore all your mind is strained and warped in
that direction. When you are past this state of feverish
restlessness, everything will become quite easy.

SUDARSHANA. How is it that it is easy to you, who are a servant,
and so difficult to me, the Queen?

SURANGAMA. It is because I am a mere servant that no difficulty
baulks me. On the first day, when he left this room to my care,
saying, "Surangama, you will always keep this chamber ready for
me: this is all your task," then I did not say, even in thought,
"Oh, give me the work of those who keep the other rooms lighted."
No, but as soon as I bent all my mind to my task, a power woke
and grew within me, and mastered every