Opening Remarks
Introducing each other, Death, the Shadow and Savitri, the embodied Hope move along with Satyavan through the kingdom of the Night. His fate hangs in the balance as the outcome of this battle between the two opponents.
Ruthless will
In the eternity of his ruthless will
Sure of his empire and his armoured might,
Like one disdaining violent helpless words
From victim lips Death answered not again.
Death continues to journey further sure of his empire of Darkness. His will is ruthless and his might is armoured by the Night. Disdaining the violent helpless words of Savitri as from the lips of a victim, seeking to change the course of fixed destiny, Death moves on without answering.
Darkness wrapped
He stood in silence and in darkness wrapped,
A figure motionless, a shadow vague,
Girt with the terrors of his secret sword.
Wrapped in darkness he stood in silence as a motionless figure. He stood there as a vague shadow girdled with terrors as secret swords around him.
Night’s dusk tiara
Half-seen in clouds appeared a sombre face;
Night’s dusk tiara was his matted hair,
The ashes of the pyre his forehead’s sign.
A half-seen sombre face appeared amidst the clouds with Night’s dusk as a tiara over his matted hair. The ashes of the pyre rubbed over were the sign of his forehead.
Unhoping vasts
Once more a wanderer in the unending Night,
Blindly forbidden by dead vacant eyes,
She travelled through the dumb unhoping vasts.
Once more Savitri wandered in the unending Night in the trail of Death. She travelled blindly through the dumb unhoping vasts forbidden by dead vacant eyes.
Waste of gloom
Around her rolled the shuddering waste of gloom,
Its swallowing emptiness and joyless death
Resentful of her thought and life and love.
Resentful of her thought and life and love there rolled around her the shuddering waste of gloom and its swallowing emptiness and joyless death.
Moved the three
Through the long fading night by her compelled,
Gliding half-seen on their unearthly path,
Phantasmal in the dimness moved the three.
The three continued to move through the long fading night. Compelled by the Night they moved half-seen on their unearthly path as phantom figures gliding in the dimness.
Closing Remarks
Savitri, holding the lamp of hope, keeps pace with Death burying with the soul of Satyavan through his kingdom of the Night.
Closing Remarks for the Canto
Death is in his Kingdom of the Night and his reign is assisted by terror and fear. He seeks to extinguish all hope but Savitri stands her ground to vindicate her right to live and love.
Closing Remarks for the Book Nine
There are the three lower worlds over which Death rules. Savitri will follow him in his course. She has been successful in surviving the darkest of the three realms, the Inconscient where hope is not and no gleam of Light can enter. But there too Savitri has lit the lamp of Hope and with its ray she moves assailed by the Night and oppressed by terror and gloom as the chieftains of the army of Death. She answers the questions posed by Death and even secures boons for Satyavan’s father restoring his kingdom and sight, But the Satyavan is yet not decided as they move further towards the Twilight zones.
