Page:Little Clay Cart (Ryder 1905).djvu/190

154

The man, with meal and powder strewn,

Is now to beast of offering grown.

[He gazes intently before him.] Alas for human differences! [Mournfully.]

For when they see the fate that I must brave,

With tears for death's poor victim freely given,

The citizens cry "shame," yet cannot save,—

Can only pray that I attain to heaven.

Headsmen. Out of the way, gentlemen, out of the way! Why do you gaze upon him?

God Indra moving through the sky,

The calving cow, the falling star,

The good man when he needs must die,

These four behold not from afar.

Goha. Look, Ahīnta! Look, man!

While he, of citizens the best,

Goes to his death at fate's behest

Does heaven thus weep that he must die?

Does lightning paint the cloudless sky?

Ahīnta. Goha, man,

The heaven weeps not that he must die,

Nor lightning paints the cloudless sky;

Yet streams are falling constantly

From many a woman's clouded eye.

And again:

While this poor victim to his death is led,

No man nor woman here but sorely weeps;

And so the dust, by countless tear-drops fed,

Thus peacefully upon the highway sleeps.

Chārudatta. [''Gazes intently. Mournfully''.]

These women, in their palaces who stay,

From half-shut windows peering, thus lament,