MALINI(play)
Rabindranath Tagore
MALINI।
The moment has come for me, and my life, like the dew drop upon a lotus leaf, is trembling upon the heart of this great time. I shut my eyes and seem to hear the tumult of the sky, and there is an anguish in my heart, I know not for what.
(Enters QUEEN.)
QUEEN।
My child, what is this? Why do you forget to put on dresses that befit your beauty and youth? Where are your ornaments? My beautiful dawn, how can you absent the touch of gold from your limbs?
MALINI।
Mother, there are some who are born poor, even in a king's house. Wealth does not cling to those whose destiny it is to find riches in poverty.
QUEEN।
That the child whose only language was the baby cry should talk to me in such riddles! - My heart quakes in fear when I listen to you. Where did you pick up your new creed, which goes against all our holy books? My child, they say that the Buddhist monks, from whom you take your lessons, practice black arts; that they cast their spells upon men's minds, confounding them with lies. But I ask you, is religion a thing that one has to find by seeking? Is it not like sunlight, given to you for all days? I am a simple woman. I do not understand men's creeds and dogmas. I only know that women's true objects of worship come to their own arms, without asking, in the shape of their husbands and their children.
(Enters KING.)
KING।
My daughter, storm clouds are gathering over the King's house. Go no farther along your perilous path. Pause, if only for a short time.
QUEEN।
What dark words are these?
KING।
My foolish child, if you must bring your new creed into this land of the old, let it not come like a sudden flood threatening those who dwell on the bank. Keep your faith to your own self. Rake not up public hatred and mockery against it.
QUEEN।
Do not chide my girl, and teach her the crookedness of your diplomacy. If my child should choose her own teachers and pursue her own path, I do not know who can blame her.
KING।
Queen, my people are agitated, they clamour for my daughter's banishment.
QUEEN।
Banishment? Of your own daughter?
KING।
The Brahmins, frightened at her heresy, have combined, and-
QUEEN।
Heresy indeed. Are all truths confined only in their musty, old books? Let them fling away their worm-eaten creeds, and come and take their lessons from this child. I tell you, King, she is not a common girl, -she is a pure flame of fire. Some divine spirit has taken birth in her. Do not despise her, lest some day you strike your forehead, and weep, and find her no more.
MALINI।
Father, grant to your people their request. The great moment has come. Banish me.
KING।
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Tagore
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