Page:Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.djvu/45

Rh "Then where, O Muni, is the bar?
 * If wealth be gone, and kingdom lost,

His merit still remains a star,
 * Nor melts his lineage like the frost.

For riches, worldly power, or rank
 * I care not,—I would have my son

Pure, wise, and brave,—the Fates I thank
 * I see no hindrance, no, not one."

"Since thou insistest, King, to hear
 * The fatal truth,—I tell you,—I,

Upon this day as rounds the year
 * The young prince Satyavan shall die."

This was enough. The monarch knew
 * The future was no sealed book

To Brahma's son. A clammy dew
 * Spread on his brow,—he gently took

Savitri's palm in his, and said:
 * "No child can give away her hand,

A pledge is nought unsanctionèd;
 * And here, if right I understand,

There was no pledge at all,—a thought,
 * A shadow,—barely crossed the mind—

Unblamed, it may be clean forgot,
 * Before the gods it cannot bind.