CHITRA(西特拉)

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2024-12-26 0 0 68.77KB 27 页 5.9玖币

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CHITRA

BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE

A PLAY IN ONE ACT

CHITRA

PREFACE

THIS lyrical drama was written about twenty-five years ago. It is

based on the following story from the Mahabharata.

In the course of his wanderings, in fulfilment of a vow of penance,

Arjuna came to Manipur. There he saw Chitrangada, the beautiful

daughter of Chitravahana, the king of the country. Smitten with her

charms, he asked the king for the hand of his daughter in marriage.

Chitravahana asked him who he was, and learning that he was Arjuna the

Pandara, told him that Prabhanjana, one of his ancestors in the kingly line

of Manipur, had long been childless. In order to obtain an heir, he

performed severe penances. Pleased with these austerities, the god Shiva

gave him this boon, that he and his successors should each have one child.

It so happened that the promised child had invariably been a son. He,

Chitravahana, was the first to have only a daughter Chitrangada to

perpetuate the race. He had, therefore, always treated her as a son and had

made her his heir.

Continuing, the king said:

"The one son that will be born to her must be the perpetuator of my

race. That son will be the price that I shall demand for this marriage. You

can take her, if you like, on this condition."

Arjuna promised and took Chitrangada to wife, and lived in her

father's capital for three years. When a son was born to them, he embraced

her with affection, and taking leave of her and her father, set out again on

his travels.

CHITRA

THE CHARACTERS

GODS: MADANA (Eros). VASANTA (Lycoris).

MORTALS: CHITRA, daughter of the King of Manipur. ARJUNA, a

prince of the house of the Kurus. He is of the Kshatriya or "warrior caste,"

and during the action is living as a Hermit retired in the forest.

VILLAGERS from an outlying district of Manipur.

NOTE.--The dramatic poem "Chitra" has been performed in India

without scenery--the actors being surrounded by the audience. Proposals

for its production here having been made to him, he went through this

translation and provided stage directions, but wished these omitted if it

were printed as a book.

CHITRA

SCENE I

Chitra

ART thou the god with the five darts, the Lord of Love?

Madana

I am he who was the first born in the heart of the Creator. I bind in

bonds of pain and bliss the lives of men and women!

Chitra

I know, I know what that pain is and those bonds.--And who art thou,

my lord?

Vasanta

I am his friend--Vasanta--the King of the Seasons. Death and

decrepitude would wear the world to the bone but that I follow them and

constantly attack them. I am Eternal Youth.

Chitra

I bow to thee, Lord Vasanta.

Madana

But what stern vow is thine, fair stranger? Why dost thou wither thy

fresh youth with penance and mortification? Such a sacrifice is not fit for

the worship of love. Who art thou and what is thy prayer?

Chitra

I am Chitra, the daughter of the kingly house of Manipur. With godlike

grace Lord Shiva promised to my royal grandsire an unbroken line of male

descent. Nevertheless, the divine word proved powerless to change the

spark of life in my mother's womb --so invincible was my nature, woman

though I be.

Madana

I know, that is why thy father brings thee up as his son. He has taught

thee the use of the bow and all the duties of a king.

Chitra

Yes, that is why I am dressed in man's attire and have left the seclusion

of a woman's chamber. I know no feminine wiles for winning hearts. My

hands are strong to bend the bow, but I have never learnt Cupid's archery,

CHITRA

the play of eyes.

Madana

That requires no schooling, fair one. The eye does its work untaught,

and he knows how well, who is struck in the heart.

Chitra

One day in search of game I roved alone to the forest on the bank of

the Purna river. Tying my horse to a tree trunk I entered a dense thicket on

the track of a deer. I found a narrow sinuous path meandering through the

dusk of the entangled boughs, the foliage vibrated with the chirping of

crickets, when of a sudden I came upon a man lying on a bed of dried

leaves, across my path. I asked him haughtily to move aside, but he

heeded not. Then with the sharp end of my bow I pricked him in contempt.

Instantly he leapt up with straight, tall limbs, like a sudden tongue of fire

from a heap of ashes. An amused smile flickered round the corners of his

mouth, perhaps at the sight of my boyish countenance. Then for the first

time in my life I felt myself a woman, and knew that a man was before

me.

Madana

At the auspicious hour I teach the man and the woman this supreme

lesson to know themselves. What happened after that?

Chitra

With fear and wonder I asked him "Who are you?" "I am Arjuna," he

said, "of the great Kuru clan." I stood petrified like a statue, and forgot to

do him obeisance. Was this indeed Arjuna, the one great idol of my dreams!

Yes, I had long ago heard how he had vowed a twelve-years' celibacy.

Many a day my young ambition had spurred me on to break my lance with

him, to challenge him in disguise to single combat, and prove my skill in

arms against him. Ah, foolish heart, whither fled thy presumption? Could I

but exchange my youth with all its aspirations for the clod of earth under

his feet, I should deem it a most precious grace. I know not in what

whirlpool of thought I was lost, when suddenly I saw him vanish through

the trees. O foolish woman, neither didst thou greet him, nor speak a word,

nor beg forgiveness, but stoodest like a barbarian boor while he

contemptuously walked away! . . . Next morning I laid aside my man's

CHITRA

clothing. I donned bracelets, anklets, waist-chain, and a gown of purple

red silk. The unaccustomed dress clung about my shrinking shame; but I

hastened on my quest, and found Arjuna in the forest temple of Shiva.

Madana

Tell me the story to the end. I am the heart-born god, and I understand

the mystery of these impulses.

Chitra

Only vaguely can I remember what things I said, and what answer I

got. Do not ask me to tell you all. Shame fell on me like a thunderbolt, yet

could not break me to pieces, so utterly hard, so like a man am I. His last

words as I walked home pricked my ears like red hot needles. "I have

taken the vow of celibacy. I am not fit to be thy husband!" Oh, the vow of

a man! Surely thou knowest, thou god of love, that unnumbered saints and

sages have surrendered the merits of their life-long penance at the feet of a

woman. I broke my bow in two and burnt my arrows in the fire. I hated

my strong, lithe arm, scored by drawing the bowstring. O Love, god Love,

thou hast laid low in the dust the vain pride of my manlike strength; and

all my man's training lies crushed under thy feet. Now teach me thy

lessons; give me the power of the weak and the weapon of the unarmed

hand.

Madana

I will be thy friend. I will bring the world-conquering Arjuna a captive

before thee, to accept his rebellion's sentence at thy hand.

Chitra

Had I but the time needed, I could win his heart by slow degrees, and

ask no help of the gods. I would stand by his side as a comrade, drive the

fierce horses of his war-chariot, attend him in the pleasures of the chase,

keep guard at night at the entrance of his tent, and help him in all the great

duties of a Kshatriya, rescuing the weak, and meting out justice where it is

due. Surely at last the day would have come for him to look at me and

wonder, "What boy is this? Has one of my slaves in a former life followed

me like my good deeds into this?" I am not the woman who nourishes her

despair in lonely silence, feeding it with nightly tears and covering it with

the daily patient smile, a widow from her birth. The flower of my desire

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摘要：

CHITRA1CHITRABYRABINDRANATHTAGOREAPLAYINONEACTCHITRA2PREFACETHISlyricaldramawaswrittenabouttwenty-fiveyearsago.ItisbasedonthefollowingstoryfromtheMahabharata.Inthecourseofhiswanderings,infulfilmentofavowofpenance,ArjunacametoManipur.TherehesawChitrangada,thebeautifuldaughterofChitravahana,thekingoft...

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