Opening Remarks
The day finally arrives when it has been prophesied that Satyavan must die. Savitri wakes up guarding the secret of adverse fate in her heart.
This Was the Day
Now it was here in this great golden dawn.
The great golden dawn has arrived when as per the prophecy Satyavan must die or else as willed by Savitri he would return back to life from the kingdom of Death.
One about to die
By her still sleeping husband lain she gazed
Into her past as one about to die
Looks back upon the sunlit fields of life
Where he too ran and sported with the rest,
Lifting his head above the huge dark stream
Into whose depths he must for ever plunge.
Savitri woke up and looked at her husband as into her past that is about to die. She looked back upon the sunlit fields of life where Satyavan ran and sported with the rest lifting his head above the stream of death into which he must plunge forever.
She lived again
All she had been and done she lived again.
She lived once again all that she had been and done.
Memories swept through
The whole year in a swift and eddying race
Of memories swept through her and fled away
Into the irrecoverable past.
The whole year swept swiftly in the field of memories and fled into the irrecoverable past.
Silently she rose
Then silently she rose and, service done,
Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved
By Satyavan upon a forest stone.
Then silently she rose and having done her daily services, she bowed down to the great goddess carved by Satyavan upon a forest stone.
Her soul and Durga knew
What prayer she breathed her soul and Durga knew.
What did she pray for that day was known to none except her soul and the Divine Mother.
The infinite Mother watching over
Perhaps she felt in the dim forest huge
The infinite Mother watching over her child,
Perhaps the shrouded Voice spoke some still word.
Perhaps she felt in the dim forest as if the infinite Mother was watching over her child. Perhaps the Divine Mother spoke some word.
At last she came
At last she came to the pale mother queen.
At last she came to Satyavan’s mother.
Guarded lips and tranquil face
She spoke but with guarded lips and tranquil face
Lest some stray word or some betraying look
Should let pass into the mother’s unknowing breast,
Slaying all happiness and need to live,
A dire foreknowledge of the grief to come.
Savitri spoke to her with guarded lips and tranquil face lest she may spill over some word or betray the dire foreknowledge by her look and pass it into a mother’s heart. This would slay all happiness and will to live by the anticipation of the grief.
Needed utterance
Only the needed utterance passage found:
All else she pressed back into her anguished heart
And forced upon her speech an outward peace.
She spoke only the needed words while holding back all else into her anguished heart, forcing an outward peace upon her speech.
Closing Remarks
The day of the prophecy has begun. But none knows it except Savitri and the Divine Mother in the Shalwa woods.
