Sundara Kanda, Sarga 28

Meaning

Recalling the aforesaid unpalatable threat of Rāvaṇa, the lord of ogres, the celebrated Sītā, who was already afflicted with separation from her beloved husband, got terrified even as the female calf of a lordly elephant fallen into the clutches of a lion on the edge of a forest. (1)

Meaning

Encircled by the ogresses and repeatedly intimidated with threats by Rāvaṇa, that timid lady, Sītā, began to wail as follows like a young girl abandoned in the heart of a lonely and thick forest: (2)

Meaning

“Truly do the wise affirm that death does not come in the world before the appointed hour, since I, devoid of merit that I am, survive even for a moment, though being reproached unsparingly in this way. (3)

Meaning

“Though bereft of joy and full of great agony, my heart must be hard indeed in that it does not break into a thousand pieces this day like the crest of a mountain struck by lightning. (4)

Meaning

“Surely no blame whatsoever will attach to me if I give up the ghost at this juncture; for, I stand sentenced to death at the hands of this ogre of odious appearance. In any case, I am unable voluntarily to bestow my affection on him any more than a member of the twice-born classes would impart Vedic knowledge to one not belonging to the twice-born classes. (5)

Meaning

“Even before Śrī Rāma, that ruler of the world, arrives here, the vile Rāvaṇa, the lord of ogres, will as surely cut my limbs to pieces in no time with his sharpened weapons even as a surgeon would cut the limbs of a lifeless foetus in order to facilitate its extraction from the womb under extraordinary circumstances when other contrivances to force it out prove abortive. (6)

Meaning

“Alas, it is painful indeed that two months (on the expiry of which I am going to be killed by Rāvaṇa) will before long slip away past me, afflicted for long, even as the night at the end of which a thief, placed in fetters under the detention orders of a king is to be executed, passes away in his cell. (7)

Meaning

“O Rāma, O Lakṣmaṇa, O Sumitrā, O Kausalyā (Śrī Rāma’s mother) and alongwith these my own mothers too, I, a woman of scanty fortune, am going to perish like a bark caught in a whirlwind in mid-ocean. (8)

Meaning

“Like a pair of excellent lions killed by a stroke of lightning, those two agile princes (Śrī Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa) were undoubtedly killed on my account by the being who had assumed the guise of a deer. (9)

Meaning

“It was surely the Time-Spirit, who, having assumed the form of a deer, beguiled me, a woman of scanty fortune that I am, at that time and to whom I, a stupid woman, despatched the two sons of my father-in-law, Lakṣmaṇa, a younger brother of Śrī Rāma, and Śrī Rāma, the eldest brother of Lakṣmaṇa. (10)

Meaning

“O Śrī Rāma of unfailing vows and long arms, whose countenance resembles the full moon, you, who are friendly to and beloved of the world of living beings, do not actually know me to have been sentenced to death by the king of ogres. (11)

Meaning

“My devotion to a single deity in the form of my husband and this forbearance, nay, my reposing on the ground, and my observing rules of righteousness and loyalty to my husband—all this has proved futile like the service rendered by human beings to ungrateful men. (12)

Meaning

“Only in vain has this virtue been practised by me and this exclusive devotion of mine to my husband has also proved futile in that I do not behold you and, separated from you, have grown pale and emaciated and lost all hope of being re-united with you. (13)

Meaning

“When, having carried out the behest of your father according to rules and completed your vow of fourteen years of ascetic life, you return from the forest, rid of all fear and accomplished of purpose, you for your part will, I believe, revel with many large-eyed women after marrying them. (14)

Meaning

“Having practised austerities and observed holy vows for nothing (as they did not prove effective in reuniting me with you), I for myself, O Śrī Rāma, in whom was aroused a longing for you and whose affection has been fastened in you for long to my mortal agony, I shall presently give up the ghost now. Woe to me of scanty fortune! (15)

Meaning

“I would shortly part with my life through poison or even by means of a sharpened weapon. In the abode of Rāvaṇa, an ogre, however, there is none to give me poison or a weapon.” (16)

Meaning

Reflecting on various lines and then seizing the string that tied her hair, Sītā, who was tormented with grief, now thought within herself: “Tying my neck with the fillet that ties my braid, I shall proceed to the presence of Yama.” (17)

Meaning

Taking hold of a branch of the aforesaid Śiṁśapā tree, that lady, who was delicate of all limbs, stood near that tree. While that lady of charming limbs was thinking deeply of Śrī Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa as also of her own royal House, many omens—which were well-known in the world as dispellers of grief and restoring confidence, and which had been found by her even before as predictive of success, presently appeared on her person. (18-19)