Scene 8 - Page 2

away from you.
Beauty has cast its spell on me--this frenzy, this intoxication
will never leave me--it has dazzled and fired my eyes, it has
thrown its golden glamour over my very dreams! I have told you
all now--punish me as you like.

KING. The punishment has already begun.

SUDARSHANA. But if you do not cast me off. I will leave you

KING. You have the utmost liberty to do as you like.

SUDARSHANA. I cannot bear your presence! My heart is angry at
you. Why did you--but what have you done to me? ... Why are
you like this? Why did they tell me you were fair and handsome?
Thou art black, black as night--I shall never, I can never, like
you. I have seen what I love--it is soft as cream, delicate as
the shirisha flower, beautiful as a butterfly.

KING. It is false as a mirage, empty as a bubble.

SUDARSHANA. Let it be--but I cannot stand near you--I simply
cannot! I must fly away from here. Union with you, it cannot be
possible! It cannot be anything but a false union--my mind must
inevitably turn away from you.

KING. Will you not even try a little?

SUDARSHANA. I have been trying since yesterday--but the more I
try, the more rebellious does my heart become. If I stay with
you I shall constantly be pursued and hounded by the thought that
I am impure, that I am false and faithless.

KING. Well then, you can go as far from me as you like.

SUDARSHANA. I cannot fly away from you--just because you do not
prevent my going. Why do you not hold me back, hold me by the
hair, saying, "You shall not go"? Why do you not strike me? Oh,
punish me, strike me, beat me with violent hands! But your
unresisting silence makes me wild--oh, I cannot bear it!

KING. How do you think that I am really silent? How do you know
that I am not trying to keep you back?

SUDARSHANA. Oh, no, no !--I cannot bear this--tell me aloud,
command me with the voice of thunder, compel me with words that
will drown everything else in my ears--do not let me off so
easily, so mildly!

KING. I shall leave you free, but why should I let you break
away from me?

SUDARSHANA. You will not let me? Well then, I must go!

KING. Go then!

SUDARSHANA. Then I am not to blame at all. You could have held
me back by force, but you did not! You have not hindered me--and
now I shall go away. Command your sentinels to prevent my going.

KING. No one will stand in your way. You can go as free as the
broken storm-cloud driven by the tempest.

SUDARSHANA. I can resist no more--something in me is impelling
me forward--I am breaking away from my anchor! Perhaps I shall
sink, but I shall return no more. [She rushes out.]

[Enter SURANGAMA, who