Book-8-Study-Canto-3

Book Eight: Canto 3

Death in the Forest

Summary
On the fateful day, at dawn, Savitri looks back into her past and relives all that she has been and done. She bows down to the goddess Durga and prays. Then she approaches the queen mother and obtains her consent to accompany Satyavan to the forest that day.

Both Satyavan and Savitri go into the forest, hand in hand, he showing her all along the varied riches of the forest, speaking of the things he loved there. Savitri, aware of the impending doom, treasures every word that falls from his lips.

Satyavan starts axing a tree for fuel and as he works, he sings snatches of a sage’s chant on the conquest of death and the slaying of evil. But as he proceeds, he is overcome by sudden shooting pains all over his body. He throws away the axe and seeks Savitri’s support. She clasps him and tries to soothe his pain. But slowly his colour changes and he utters his last cry asking for her kiss. She presses her lips upon his, but his fail to respond.

She grows aware that they are no longer alone: Some chilling Shadow has appeared. There is a hush and terror all round. Death is standing there.

Satyavan has passed.

Savitri Gazes into Her Past

Now it was here in this great golden dawn
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.

When one is about to die, one lifts up his head above the huge dark stream of gathering death into which he is being swept — and into which he is soon to sink down — and casts a quick look back upon the bright life he has lived. In the same manner, on this significant day at bright dawn, Savitri, sitting by the side of Satyavan still asleep, casts back her gaze into her past.

Bows Down to The Goddess

All she had been and done she lived again.

The whole year in a swift and eddying race
Of memories swept through her and fled away
Into the irrecoverable past.

Then silently she rose and, service done,
Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved
By Satyavan upon a forest stone.

What prayer she breathed her soul and Doorga knew.

Perhaps she felt in the dim forest huge
The infinite Mother watching over her child,
Perhaps the shrouded Voice spoke some still word.

She relives all that has passed. Events of the whole past year that she has lived with Satyavan rush through her memory and fade into the past. Then she gets up silently, and, after due service, she bows down to the image of the great Goddess Durga, carved simply by Satyavan upon a stone of the forest.

Only her soul and the Goddess Durga know what prayer she makes. Perhaps Savitri feels, in that huge, dim forest, the Infinite Divine Mother keeping watch over her — child that she is of the Divine Mother; perhaps the hidden voice of the Mother speaks some silent word which she alone can hear.

Speaks to The Mother Queen

At last she came to the pale mother queen.

She spoke but with guarded lips and tranquil face
As 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.

Only the needed utterance passage found:
All else she pressed back into her anguished heart
And forced upon her speech an outward peace:

Savitri then comes to Satyavan’s mother. She speaks to her with caution and with a calm appearance so that no casual word or revealing look on her part may arouse any apprehensions of the coming grief in the mother’s unsuspecting heart and thus end for her all happiness and the need to live in a world without Satyavan. She speaks just what is needed, pressing back all else into her distressed heart, with an enforced quietude.

Great Woodland not yet Visited

“One year that I have lived with Satyavan
Here on the emerald edge of the vast woods,
In the iron ring of the enormous peaks
Under the blue rifts of the forest sky,
I have not gone into the silences
Of this great woodland that enringed my thoughts
With mystery, nor in its green miracles
Wandered, but this small clearing was my world.

"During this one year that I have lived with Satyavan here on the green edge of the vast forest, surrounded by the huge mountains, under the blue patches of the forest sky, I have not gone into the solitude of these woods whose mystery and beauty have always attracted me; I have not seen their wonder-spots. My world has been confined to this little hermitage.

Desire to Go With Satyavan

Now has a strong desire seized all my heart
To go with Satyavan holding his hand
Into the life that he has loved and touch
Herbs he has trod and know the forest flowers
And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life
That starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs
And all the mystic whispering of the woods.

Release me now and let my heart have rest.”

"Today I have a strong desire to go along with Satyavan into the forests that he loves so much, and see and feel the pulsating life of the plants, birds, animals and the trees there. Permit me to go, let my heart be happy in the fulfilment of its desire."

Child-Sovereign Permitted

She answered: “Do as thy wise mind desires,
O calm child-sovereign with the eyes that rule.

I hold thee for a strong goddess who has come
Pitying our barren days; so dost thou serve
Even as a slave might, yet art thou beyond
All that thou doest, all our minds conceive,
Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.”

The queen-mother answers:"O child-sovereign with imperious eyes who art always calm and wise, do as thou choosest. I regard thee as a powerful goddess who has come to us out of compassion for our barren existence here. Thou servest as hard as a slave does and yet thou art always above thy actions, above all our conceptions; thou art like the strong sun who serves the earth incessantly, but is always far above."

Into The Forest

Then the doomed husband and the woman who knew
Went with linked hands into that solemn world
Where beauty and grandeur and unspoken dream,
Where Nature’s mystic silence could be felt
Communing with the secrecy of God.

Then Satyavan, who does not know of the impending doom, and Savitri, who knows all, go together, hand in hand, into the forest, a world by itself with it own beauty, grandeur and silent aspirations, where Nature can be felt communing in a profound silence with the secrecy of God.

Satyavan Shows The Forest’s Riches

Beside her Satyavan walked full of joy,
Because she moved with him through his green haunts:
He showed her all the forest’s riches, flowers
Innumerable of every odour and hue
And soft thick clinging creepers red and green
And strange rich-plumaged birds, to every cry
That haunted sweetly distant boughs, replied
With the shrill singer’s name more sweetly called.

Satyavan walks full of joy because today Savitri is with him in his visit to his favourite forest-haunts. He shows her all the riches of the forest, its innumerable, variegated flowers, its colourful creepers, and the strange, richly feathered birds sweetly calling each other in shrill notes from distant boughs.

His Boyhood Comrades

He spoke of all the things he loved: they were
His boyhood’s comrades and his playfellows,
Coevals and companions of his life
Here in this world whose every mood he knew:
Their thoughts which to the common mind are blank
He shared, to every wild emotion felt

An answer. Satyavan speaks to Savitri of all the things in the woods that he specially loves, of the denizens of the forest who have been his boyhood friends, playfellows and companions of his life. He knows every mood of theirs, he understands their thoughts of which the common mind is hardly aware, he responds to every wild emotion in that forest world.

Savitri Listens to The Voice

… Deeply she listened, but to hear
The voice that soon would cease from tender words
And treasure its sweet cadences beloved
For lonely memory when none by her walked
And the beloved voice could speak no more.

But little dwelt her mind upon their sense;
Of death, not life she thought or life’s lone end.

Savitri listens attentively to Satyavan, not to the sense of his words but to his voice that will soon cease to speak, in order to preserve its sweet cadences in her memory to be drawn upon when she will be left alone. Her mind is thinking not of life but of death, of the lonely end of life.

Pain At Every Step

Love in her bosom hurt with jagged edges
Of anguish moaned at every step with pain
Crying, “Now, now perhaps his voice will cease
For ever.” Even by some vague touch oppressed,
Sometimes her eyes looked round as if their orbs
Might see the dim and dreadful god’s approach.

At each step her love is stabbed by anguish at the approaching tragedy and it cries: "Now, now perhaps his voice will cease." At times there is a sense of some vague touch and she looks round as if she might see the dreadful god of death approaching.

Satyavan Pauses

But Satyavan had paused. He meant to finish
His labour here that happy, linked, uncaring
They two might wander free in the green deep
Primeval mystery of the forest’s heart.

Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose
Of the bright face and body which she loved.

Now Satyavan stops. He means first to complete his chore of cutting down a tree for its wood so that both of them could afterwards wander happily in the deeps of the forest. Waiting near him silently, Savitri watches every movement of the face and body which she loves so intensely.

Wields The Joyous Axe

Her life was now in seconds, not in hours,
And every moment she economised
Like a pale merchant leaned above his store,
The miser of his poor remaining gold.

But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe.

Savitri is aware of the sands of time fast running out. She seeks to make the most of every moment like an anxious merchant watching over his store, a miser counting his remaining stock of gold.

But Satyavan swings his axe merrily.

Satyavan Sings of Conquered Death

He sang high snatches of a sage’s chant
That pealed of conquered death and demons slain,
And sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech
Of love and mockery tenderer than love:
She like a pantheress leaped upon his words
And carried them into her cavern heart.

Satyavan sings aloud bits of a sage’s song celebrating victory over death and the destruction of demons; at times he interrupts his singing to utter sweet words of love, tender and teasing. Savitri grasps them avidly and treasures them in her heart.

Hounds of Pain

But as he worked, his doom upon him came.

The violent and hungry hounds of pain
Travelled through his body biting as they passed
Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged
Strove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free.

But as he works, his doom arrives.

Violent and intense shooting pains start and spread all over his body; his suffocating breath struggles to break the bonds of life.

Wave of Relief

Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey,
A moment in a wave of rich relief
Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood
Rejoicing and resumed his confident toil
But with less seeing strokes. …

There is a moment of recovery and relief; Satyavan feels fresh and strong again and resumes his toil with the axe. But his strokes are less sure.

Great Woodsman Hews

… Now the great Woodsman
Hewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting
His arm he flung away the poignant axe
Far from him like an instrument of pain.

Suddenly death strikes at Satyavan and his labour ceases. He lifts up his arm and throws away the sharp axe far from himself as though it were an instrument of pain.

Agony such as Tree Must Feel

She came to him in silent anguish and clasped,
And he cried to her, “Savitri, a pang
Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe
Were piercing it and not the living branch.

Such agony rends me as the tree must feel
When it is sundered and must lose its life.

Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap
And guard me with thy hands from evil fate:
Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.”

Savitri goes to him in anguish and clasps him. He cries out to her: "Savitri, it is as though the axe is piercing me and not the tree; there is a sharp pang in my head and breast. My agony is like that of the tree when it is cut down and about to die. Let me lay my head upon thy lap for a while. Guard me with thy hands from a possible evil fate. Death may pass because thou boldest me."

Savitri Guards

Then Savitri sat under branches wide,
Cool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree
Which his keen axe had cloven,—that she shunned;
But leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk
She guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe
His anguished brow and body with her hands.

Then Savitri sits in the shade of a kingly tree — avoiding the tree that Satyavan has cut into with his sharp axe — and holds him to her bosom; she tries to soothe with her hands his brow and body shaking with agony.

She waits Griefless and Strong

All grief and fear were dead within her now
And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen
His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain
Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed:
Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.

Grief and fear are no more in her. Instead a great calm has come over her. The only mortal feeling still left in her is the wish to lessen his suffering, the natural reaction to pain. Even that passes. She is no more human. Griefless and strong, like the gods, she waits.

His Hue Changes

But now his sweet familiar hue was changed
Into a tarnished greyness and his eyes
Dimmed over, forsaken of the clear light she loved.

Only the dull and physical mind was left,
Vacant of the bright spirit’s luminous gaze.

Soon, Satyavan’s usual sweet hue changes into a tarnished grey. His eyes dim; their clear light departs: only the dull, mechanical mind remains, bereft of the usual luminous look of the bright spirit within.

Cry in last Despair

But once before it faded wholly back,
He cried out in a clinging last despair,
“Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri,
Lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.”

But before that bright gaze fades away completely, Satyavan utters a last cry of despair: "O Savitri, Savitri, Savitri, my soul, lean down and kiss me as I die."

His Lips Fail

And even as her pallid lips pressed his,
His failed, losing last sweetness of response;
His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought
His mouth still with her living mouth, as if
She could persuade his soul back with her kiss;

However, though Savitri’s pallid lips press upon Satyavan’s, there is no response. His cheek presses down upon her golden arm. She seeks his mouth again with her living mouth as though with her kisses she could persuade his soul to come back.

A Silent Shade Immense

Then grew aware they were no more alone.

Something had come there conscious, vast and dire.

Near her she felt a silent shade immense
Chilling the noon with darkness for its back.

Suddenly Savitri grows aware that they two are no longer alone; something vast, fearful and conscious has come there. She feels near her a huge silent shade of darkness making dark and chilly the bright and warm light of noon.

Terror and Anguish

An awful hush had fallen upon the place:
There was no cry of birds, no voice of beasts.

A terror and an anguish filled the world,
As if annihilation’s mystery
Had taken a sensible form.…

A hush of awe has fallen upon the place. The cry of birds is no more; the voice of beasts no more sounds; the entire world seems to be filled with a terror and an anguish, as if the mystery of destruction had taken a concrete form.

A Cosmic Mind

… A cosmic mind
Looked out on all from formidable eyes
Contemning all with his unbearable gaze
And with immortal lips and a vast brow
It saw in its immense destroying thought
All things and beings as a pitiful dream,

Some universal mind looks out on all from imposing eyes, condemning all with its unbearable gaze; with lips immortal and a vast brow, it sees in its huge all-destroying thought all things and beings as a miserable dream.

Doom of Nought

Rejecting with calm disdain Nature’s delight,
The wordless meaning of its deep regard
Voicing the unreality of things
And life that would be for ever but never was
And its brief and vain recurrence without cease,
As if from a Silence without form or name
The Shadow of a remote uncaring god
Doomed to his Naught illusory universe,
Cancelling its show of idea and act in Time
And its imitation of eternity.

It rejects with contempt Nature’s delight. Its deep regard visibly expresses the unreality of things and of life that seeks to be for ever but in fact has never been so, life in its brief, useless recurrences without respite. It is as if some Shadow of a far-off uncaring God, from a Silence that is formless and nameless,has condemned to Nothingness this illusory universe, cancelling its appearance of idea and action in Time and its vain imitation of eternity.

Satyavan Has Passed

She knew that visible Death was standing there
And Satyavan had passed from her embrace.

Savitri realises that Death in a visible form is standing there and that Satyavan has passed away from her embrace