Opening Remarks
Satyavan falls from the tree and is torn by a shearing pain. He calls Savitri to come near him even as Death arrives on the spot at the appointed hour.
She guarded him
Then Savitri sat under branches wide,
Cool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree
Which his keen axe had cloven,—that she shunned;
But leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk
She guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe
His anguished brow and body with her hands.
Savitri came near him and sat beneath a kingly trunk guarding Satyavan in her bosom and trying to soothe his anguished brow and body with her hands.
Griefless and strong
All grief and fear were dead within her now
And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen
His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain
Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed:
Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.
All grief and fear were dead within her and a great calm had come upon her. She wished to lessen his suffering. The impulse that opposes pain was the only feeling left. Then it passed away too leaving her griefless and strong. She waited for the next moment even like the gods.
The sign of impending death
But now his sweet familiar hue was changed
Into a tarnished greyness and his eyes
Dimmed over, forsaken of the clear light she loved.
Satyavan’s face had changed from his usual sweet familiar hue into a tarnished grey. His eyes had dimmed as if forsaken by the clear light that she loved.
Vacant of the luminous gaze
Only the dull and physical mind was left,
Vacant of the bright spirit’s luminous gaze.
Only the dull physical mind was left vacant of the bright spirit’s luminous gaze that once shined through the eyes of Satyavan.
Satyavan cried out to Savitri
But once before it faded wholly back,
He cried out in a clinging last despair,
“Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri,
Lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.”
But just before the fading of the lamp of life it returned fully one last time and cried out to Savitri in clinging despair, “Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri, lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.” Thus cried Satyavan to Savitri, from the depth of his soul, in the last moments of his life.
They were no more alone
And even as her pallid lips pressed his,
His failed, losing last sweetness of response;
His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought
His mouth still with her living mouth, as if
She could persuade his soul back with her kiss;
Then grew aware they were no more alone.
Even as she pressed her lips, Satyavan failed to respond to the kiss with the familiar sweetness. His cheek pressed down against her golden arms. His mouth was still with her mouth as if she could bring him back to life persuading his soul by her kiss. Then they grew aware that they were not alone anymore.
Closing Remarks
The moment had come and death had arrived to take away the soul of Satyavan.
