Opening Remarks
Wonderful is the soul of Satyavan yet a shadow chases him attempting to cut short his life.
Veilless mind
His speech carries a light of inner truth,
And a large-eyed communion with the Power
In common things has made veilless his mind,
A seer in earth-shapes of garbless deity.
Satyavan’s mind has cast its veil of ignorance and his speech carries the light of an inner truth. He is able to commune with a larger Power behind creation and thereby see the divinity expressed in common things.
A tranquil breath
A tranquil breadth of sky windless and still
Watching the world like a mind of unplumbed thought,
A silent space musing and luminous
Uncovered by the morning to delight,
A green tangle of trees upon a happy hill
Made into a murmuring nest by southern winds,
These are his images and parallels,
His kin in beauty and in depth his peers.
Narad now resorts to more images to describe the being of Satyavan. He compares his mind to the tranquil sky watching the world from a musing and luminous space. He is full of the morning glory bringing light and delight and as the forest trees upon a hill knit harmoniously together by the murmuring winds, symbol of his nature.
A will to climb
A will to climb lifts a delight to live,
Heaven’s height companion of earth-beauty’s charm,
An aspiration to the immortals’ air
Lain on the lap of mortal ecstasy.
A will to perpetually progress and ascend further makes his life a delight turning it into a glad companionship of heaven and earth. He embodies within him an aspiration that climbs to the seat of the gods living in the lap of delight.
A godhead quarried from the stones of heaven
His sweetness and his joy attract all hearts
To live with his own in a glad tenancy,
His strength is like a tower built to reach heaven,
A godhead quarried from the stones of life.
His sweetness and joy attracts all hearts to live near him. His strength is like tower to reach the heavenly heights. He is indeed as a god built by the choicest life.
A being so rare
O loss, if death into its elements
Of which his gracious envelope was built,
Shatter this vase before it breathes its sweets,
As if earth could not keep too long from heaven
A treasure thus unique loaned by the gods,
A being so rare, of so divine a make!
Narad now builds a quick little background about what he going to say as to the fate of Satyavan. He seems to think aloud that it will be such a loss if death this beautiful vase of heavenly flowers that his body is. It is as if the earth could not keep long this heavenly treasure, a being so rare and of so divine a make.
One brief year
In one brief year when this bright hour flies back
And perches careless on a branch of Time,
This sovereign glory ends heaven lent to earth,
This splendour vanishes from the mortal’s sky:
It is only one brief year that is given to him for the glory of heaven to bloom carelessly on a branch of Time. After an year this heaven’s gift shall return back and the splendour vanish from the mortal’s world.
Heaven’s greatness came
Heaven’s greatness came, but was too great to stay.
Heavens greatness came in him but was too great to stay upon earth.
Satyavan must die
Twelve swift-winged months are given to him and her;
This day returning Satyavan must die.”
Just twelve months remain for him to live. At the end of this period Satyavan must die.
Closing Remarks
Narad finally prophesies that though Satyavan is the very best, excellent among all men, yet he is destined to die after one year.
