When, best of all who give delight,
her rama wandered for from sight,
Kausaaly'a weeping, sore distressed,
The king her husband thus addressed;
'Thy name, O Monarch, far and wid?
Through the three worlds is glorified:
Yet Rama has the praying mind. *
His speed is true, his heart is kind.
How will thy sons, good lord, sustain
With Sita, all their care and pain?
How in the wild endure distress,
Nursed in the lap of tenderness?
How will the dear Videhan bear
The heat and cold when wandering there
Bred in the bliss of princely state,
So young and fair find delicate?
The large-eyed lady, wont to eat
The best of finely seasoned meat--
How will she now her life sustain
With woodland fare of self-sown grain?
Will she, with joys encompassed long,
Who loved the music and the song,
In the wild wood endure to hear
The ravening lion's voice of fear?
Where sleeps my strong-armed hero, where