Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5


ACT II: THE PLAY ON EARTH

 

 

SCENE I: THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD

 

 

THE MOTHER            You touch now the dome of your parents.

You have reached your peak.

Your tender body, my child,

fills up the triumphal arc of its destiny.

I must once again

cut the cord that bound you to me.

You are free.

 

THE CHILD                Mother, you wound me.

To be your child,

is it not for ever?

 

THE MOTHER            I am with you through eternity.

But in another way.

It is in you and everywhere

that I must be.

It is time to go

where you must.

 

THE CHILD                A strong and gentle wind swells my sails

light and heavy with all their future.

All the ships of the world

 

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fulfil in me their glorious voyage.

I started already

and am back already.

And whosoever I meet has an ancient face,

I know them all.

 

            THE MOTHER            These streams of delight, and of sun, and of 

                                                                                                            kisses,

your tresses, my child,

do not let them fall in floods upon your shoulders;

they would be caught in the brambles and roses.

 

SCENE 2: THE TRAVELLERS

 

First Tableau: The Tree

 

HE                               A bed of the petals of shadow for my rest.

A column for my thought.

A nave for my dream.

A robe of happiness envelops me, with the evening!

Tree, your sap

beats gently against mine.

 

TREE                           I waited for you

to clasp you with my arms of dream

before nightfall.

Have you a wish to express?

 

HE                               O tree,

mighty sacred Androgyne,

initiate me into your mystery.

 

TREE                           Look! my roots plunge

into the very source of life.

He who can drink of it becomes immortal.

Look! my branches plunge into the infinite;

I am the whole space

 

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which the sun fills up.

In me stones, flowers, animals,

children, lovers, stars

sing for ever.

 

I am the Paradise believed to be lost.

I am the cavern of the witch

and the abode of the fairy.

 

HE                               O tree,

mighty sacred Androgyne,

child of the Earth, lover of the sun,

flow into my veins, O Paradise, O Immortality!

Second Tableau: The Companions

 

HE                               Who is the craftsman that conceived

the vibrant column of our body

wherein the wind enters with its musical fingers

and that the forest prolongs. . .

 

THE SHEPHERD        In us, each flower

sees itself in a dazzled swoon.

                                                Each star finds itself again

in the depths of the golden lake of our eyes.

 

HE                               When we sing,

even in daylight,

the Moon and Venus hear us

and the Great Bear and Arcturus and Capella.

 

The Adventure is our secret Bride.

She awaits us, masked,

at the turn of the road,

 

 

THE SHEPHERD        She is the far Princess,

from her we come,

from her castle between heaven and earth,

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and to her,

hand in hand,

        warriors, builders, companions,

eternal travellers, wanderers eternal – ­

we walk on.

 

HE                               Shepherd, my friend,

who is the craftsman that tuned

the luminous lyre of my soul,

so that we vibrate together,

to the same breath?. . .

 

SCENE 3: THE LOVERS

 

HE                               Hardly an hour ago

I was still wandering

at hazard.

But every one of my steps was sure of itself.

You made a sign to me,

You called me, O my star.

 

One hour only

or long ages. . .

 

We have lived,

sung, danced together,

on her paths of sand, of water, of snow,

her carpets of rock and moss and fern,

all the unforgettable festivals of Earth.

Happiness invited us

into her grottoes, her palaces,

her fields of wheat, her fields of war.

Happiness, faithful,

the wave or the flower in its arms,

the tool, the torch, the weapon in its grip

joy on its lips,

awaited us everywhere.

 

That smile,

 

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it is You,

my Beloved.

 

SHE                             We play together,

joined in one single flame,

the immense symphony of the Universe.

 

Thousands of festivals still calf us:

those of yesterday,

those of to-morrow,

those of our eternal Meeting.

Here,

now,

                                                for ever.

 

SCENE 4: THE INITIATES

 

HE                               O my sweet Master,

I thirst for Eternity!

 

THE MASTER            I shall lead you to thy eternal Truth.

 

HE                               The ocean of life

spreads below me its tranquil lagoons

where corals build up the living house

of hours and minutes.

But each sparkle of the waters

breaks the shell of my dream.

The call of the Infinite tears me.

The ecstasy of the Infinite possesses my soul.

The Earth and the Universe capsize.

Who awaits me there?

Who calls me?

 

THE MASTER            Thyself.

INITIATE (Left)          He the Supreme Beloved.

INITIATE (Right)         The Absolute.

 

INITIATE (L)              Be pure of all taint!

 

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                                    Be pure of all thy rainbows.

Enter into thy original Whiteness!

INITIATE (R) Enter into thy original Whiteness!

INITIATE (L) Be pure of thy present,

Be pure of thy past and of thy future!

Enter into thy original Candour!

INITIATE (R) Enter into thy original Candour!

INITIATE (L)              Die to thyself!

INITIATE (R)              Die to thyself!

THE MASTER            Become Thyself!

 

The Song of Triumph

 

THE MASTER            Solitary,

eternal,

enter into thy original Splendour!

 

SCENE 5: THE ADVERSARY

 

SHE                             My spouse, my brother,

we have sworn to be eternal enemies.

It is our secret.

And now we are ready to melt

into our Unity.

The earth in alarm reels under our steps.

My brother, my spouse,

to honour our vows

you are in duty bound to kill me.

 

HE                               My sister, my spouse,

you have chosen to live by my side

like an impalpable shadow

that I may rule alone.

But it is you who rule.

The strength of my arms,

the power of my eyes,

the love of my heart,

it is you in me.

If one of us has to pass,

 

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if the great sacrifice of separation

has to be performed once again,

it is I, my sister,

who will go.

Fulfil the act

of our most secret nuptials.

 

SHE                             Oh! my brother,

my great sacred enemy,

my hand does not tremble,

but my reason fails.

In me let us live then,

in you let us die,

since it is decided.

 

HE                               To die by you, for you

to be annihilated into the ether

of the new beginnings of the world,

O supreme delight

of going by a new path, virgin and unknown

to meet you.

 

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