THE RÁMÁYAN OF VÁLMÍKI, VOL. III - Gujarat Knowledge Centre

250 THE RAMJ^YAN. Bvoh HI.
Nor live the captive of my foes.
Ah fool, with blinded eyes to choose
The evil and the gcfod.' refuse !
So the sick wretch with stubborn will
Turns fondly to the cates that kill, ,
And madly draws his lips away
From medicine that would check decay;
About thy neck securely wound
The deadly coil of Fate is bound.
And thou, Rdvan, dost not fear
Although the hour of death is near.
With death-doomed sight thine eyes behold
The gleaming of the trees of gold,
See dread Vaitarani, the flood
That rolls a stream of foamy blood,
See the dark wood by all abhorred
Its every leaf a threatening sword.
The tangled thickets thou shalt tread
Where thorns with iron points are spread.
For never can thy days be long,
Base plotter of this shame and wrong
To Ri'ima of the lofty soul
He dies who drinks the poisoned bowl.
The coils of death around, thee lie :
They hold thee and thOu canst not fly.
Ah whither, tyrant, wouldst thou run
The vengeance of my lord ta shun ?
By his unaided arm alone
Were twice seven thousand fiends o'erthrown :
Yes, in the twinkling of an eye
He forced thy mightiest fiends to die,
And shall that lord of lion heart,
Skilled in the bow and spear and dart,
Spare thee, fiend, iii battle strife.