Aranya Kanda, Sarga 53

Meaning

Distressed and greatly alarmed to see the aforesaid Rāvaṇa, the suzerain lord of ogres, of fearful eyes rising to the heavens, Sītā, a princess of Mithilā and daughter of Janaka—who was involved in a great risk (of losing her honour and chastity) and whose eyes had grown red through indignation and weeping—spoke to him as follows, crying piteously while being borne away through the sky : (1-2)

Meaning

“Do you not feel ashamed of this act, O vile Rāvaṇa—you, who, having stealthily abducted me, knowing me to be alone, are fleeing away like a coward? (3)

Meaning

“Seeking to abduct me, surely it was you alone, O evil-minded fellow, who caused my husband to be lured away by an ogre appearing in the disguise of a deer through a conjuring trick, timid as you are. (4)

Meaning

“Even the yonder aged Jaṭāyu, the king of vultures, a friend of my father-in-law, who actually strove to rescue me, lies killed there. (5)

Meaning

“Indeed the highest valour is seen in you in that I have not been won by you in a combat with my husband even after disclosing your name, O vile ogre ! (6)

Meaning

“How do you not feel ashamed even after perpetrating such a reproachful act as bearing away a woman, much more the wife of another, and that too in a lonely place where there is none to protect her? (7)

Meaning

“People will poclaim throughout the worlds the aforesaid act of yours—even though you pride yourself on your valour—as reproachful, extremely cruel and most unrighteous. (8)

Meaning

“Fie upon your valour and energy too, of which you spoke at that time. And accursed in the world is such conduct of yours, which brings reproach on your race! (9)

Meaning

“Of course, what can be done just at this moment when you are flying with such speed? Halt you but for an hour or so and you will not return alive. (10)

Meaning

“Having reached the range of sight of those two princes, Śrī Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, you will surely not be able to survive even for an hour or so, no matter if you are followed by an army. (11)

Meaning

“You will in no way be able to bear the impact of their arrows any more than a bird is able to bear the impact of a blazing fire in a forest. (12)

Meaning

“Therefore, duly considering your own welfare, you had better leave me alone, O Rāvaṇa ! Enraged by my abduction, my lord with his younger brother, Lakṣmaṇa, will strive for your destruction if you do not let me go. Your sinister purpose, for which you seek to bear me away by force, O mean fellow, will undoubtedly prove infructuous. For if, when fallen into the clutches of an enemy, I fail to behold my husband, who vies with gods, I shall not be able to sustain my life for long. Surely you do not look to your own immediate good or your lasting good and, even as a man who has reached the hour of death relishes objects which run counter to his interests, you also do the same. As a rule, that which is good for one’s health does not find favour with all those who are about to die. (13—17)

Meaning

“I know you to be caught in the noose of Death about your neck indeed, in that you do not feel diffident in embarking on this risky adventure of abducting the virtuous wife of a hero, O prowler of the night ! (18)

Meaning

“Obviously you are vividly viewing trees as made of gold (an unmistakable sign of approaching death). Nay, you are going to see in the near future, O Rāvaṇa, the fearful river Vaitaraṇī, carrying a flood of blood in place of water as well as the dreadful grove known by the name of Asipatravana (a hell of this name depicted as consisting of a cluster of trees or shrubs with leaves sharp-edged as a sword) and will behold a dentate Śālmalī (a silk-cotton tree) containing flowers of heated gold and leaves of excellent cat’s eye gems and bristling with thorns of steel. Having done such a grievous wrong to the high-souled Śrī Rāma, you shall not be able to survive long any more than on drinking poison, O merciless ogre ! You are caught in the noose of Death, which is difficult to repulse, O Rāvaṇa ! (19—22)

Meaning

“Transferred to which place will you get shelter from the rage of my high-minded husband? How will the aforesaid Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, a mighty hero, who is adept in the use of all mystic missiles, not despatch with sharp arrows you, who are carrying away his beloved spouse?” Having uttered these and many other harsh words, while still etrapped by Rāvaṇa, Sītā, a princess of the Videha territory, who was fully possessed with fear and grief, wailed piteously: so the tradition goes. (23—25)

Meaning

The villain, however, continued to bear away the lovely and youthful princess, who was talking much in a pathetic tone in the wake of crying, sore distressed as she was, and was struggling hard all the time to get released, although a tremor ran through his limbs. (26)