free and unconquered. Our sport is like that, my love! You give
chase to the fleet-footed spirit of beauty, aiming at her every
dart you have in your hands. Yet this magic deer runs ever free
and untouched.


Arjuna

My love, have you no home where kind hearts are waiting for your
return? A home which you once made sweet with your gentle
service and whose light went out when you left it for this
wilderness?


Chitra

Why these questions? Are the hours of unthinking pleasure over?
Do you not know that I am no more than what you see before you?
For me there is no vista beyond. The dew that hangs on the tip
of a Kinsuka petal has neither name nor destination. It offers
no answer to any question. She whom you love is like that
perfect bead of dew.


Arjuna

Has she no tie with the world? Can she be merely like a fragment
of heaven dropped on the earth through the carelessness of a
wanton god?