you my dues in return for your priceless gifts. Thus my love is
incomplete. Sometimes in the enigmatic depth of your sad look,
in your playful words mocking at their own meaning, I gain
glimpses of a being trying to rend asunder the languorous grace
of her body, to emerge in a chaste fire of pain through a
vaporous veil of smiles. Illusion is the first appearance of
Truth. She advances towards her lover in disguise. But a time
comes when she throws off her ornaments and veils and stands
clothed in naked dignity. I grope for that ultimate you, that
bare simplicity of truth.

Why these tears, my love? Why cover your face with your hands?
Have I pained you, my darling? Forget what I said. I will be
content with the present. Let each separate moment of beauty
come to me like a bird of mystery from its unseen nest in the
dark bearing a message of music. Let me for ever sit with
my hope on the brink of its realization, and thus end my days.


SCENE IX

CHITRA and ARJUNA

Chitra [cloaked]

My lord, has the cup been drained to the last drop? Is this,
indeed, the end? No, when all is done something still remains,
and that is my last sacrifice at your feet.

I brought from the garden of heaven flowers of incomparable