Opening Remarks
Satyavan now welcomes Savitri with a speech full of wonder and joy. The background that he gave of his ability to see behind the form and hear the voice secret in the heart was a prelude to what he speaks next.
Thunderer’s world
So now my mind could dream and my heart fear
That from some wonder-couch beyond our air
Risen in a wide morning of the gods
Thou drov’st thy horses from the Thunderer’s worlds.
So does he feel that perhaps Savitri is a dream vision or a goddess coming from Indra’s abode. His heart fears that perhaps she can come in her wonder couch only for a moment’s dream following which she would vanish into the skies.
Heavenly beauty
Although to heaven thy beauty seems allied,
Much rather would my thoughts rejoice to know
That mortal sweetness smiles between thy lids
And thy heart can beat beneath a human gaze
And thy aureate bosom quiver with a look
And its tumult answer to an earth-born voice.
Although he feels in Savitri’s countenance an unearthly heavenly beauty he would rather be happy to know that she belongs to earth and holds in her heart the sweetness of the mortal humans. He would rather be happy if she has a human heart that quivers with a look filled with love and answers to a human voice.
Let thy journey cease
If our time-vexed affections thou canst feel,
Earth’s ease of simple things can satisfy,
If thy glance can dwell content on earthly soil,
And this celestial summary of delight,
Thy golden body, dally with fatigue
Oppressing with its grace our terrain, while
The frail sweet passing taste of earthly food
Delays thee and the torrent’s leaping wine,
Descend. Let thy journey cease, come down to us.
He asks Savitri if she could feel the cares and affections of human life, if she could be satisfied with the touch of earth and simple things, if her golden body that seems a heavenly mould of delight could dally with fatigue and step on the difficult mountain terrain and feel satisfied with the passing taste of earthly food and the waters of the running spring. If so then he would wish that she comes down and end her further seeking.
Closing Remarks
Satyavan knows the ways of gods and men and prefers the human soul since it carries behind its mortality a love that is not found even in the gods. This special thing that makes man truly great is the presence of the psychic being that is found only upon earth.
About Savitri | B1C1-10 The Response of Earth (p.5)