the One who wears the garland of skulls, and lives in the burning-ground of the dead?
Chandra
I do not know, I cannot say. But he is coming. You shall see him.
Minstrel
Yes, I see him.
(The light strengthens and gradually throughout the scene grows to a culminating brilliance at the close.)
Where?
Minstrel
Here.
He is coming out of the cave.—Some one is coming out of the cave.
How wonderful.
Chandra
Why, it is you!
Our Leader!
Our Leader!
Our Leader!
Where is the Old Man?
Leader
He is nowhere.
Nowhere?
Leader
Yes, nowhere.
Then what is he?
Leader
He is a dream.
Then you are the real?
Leader
Yes.
And we are the real?
Leader
Yes.
Those who saw you from behind imagined you in all kinds of shapes.
We didn't recognize you through the dust.
You seemed old.
And then you came out of the cave,—and now you look like a boy.
It seems just as if we had seen you for the first time.
Chandra
You are first every time. You are first over and over again.
Leader
Chandra! You must own your defeat. You couldn't catch the Old Man.
Chandra
Let our festival begin. The sun is up.
Minstrel, if you keep so still, you will swoon away. Sing something.
(The Minstrel sings.)
I lose thee, to find thee back again and again,
My beloved.
Thou leavest me, that I may receive thee all the more, when thou returnest.
Thou canst vanish behind the moment's screen
Only because thou art mine for evermore,
My beloved.
When I go in search of thee, my heart trembles, spreading ripples across my love.
Thou smilest through thy disguise of utter absence, and my tears sweeten thy smile.
Do you hear the hum?
Yes.
They are not bees, but the people of the place.
Then Dada must be near at hand with his quatrains.
Dada
Is this the Leader?
Yes, Dada.
Dada
Oh, I am so glad you have come. I must read my collection of quatrains.
No. No. Not the whole collection, but only one.
Dada
Very well. One will do.
The sun is at the gate of the East, his drum of victory sounding in the sky.
The Night says I am blessed, my death is bliss.
He receives his alms of gold, filling his wallet,—and departs.
That is to say——
No. We don't want your that is to say.
Dada
It means——
Whatever it means, we are determined not to know it.
Dada
What makes you so desperate?
It is our festival day.
Dada
Ah! Is that so? Then let me go to all the neighbours——
No, you mustn't go there.
Dada
But is there any need for me here?
Yes.
Then my quatrains——
Chandra
We shall colour your quatrains with such a thick brush, that no one will know whether they have any meaning at all.
And then you will be without any means.
The neighbourhood will desert you.
The Watchman will take you to be a fool.
And the Pundit will take you to be a blockhead.
And your own people will consider you to be useless.
And the outside people will consider you queer.
Chandra
But we shall crown you, Dada, with a crown of new leaves.
We shall put a garland of jasmine round your neck.
And there will be no one else except ourselves who will know your true worth.
THE SONG OF THE FESTIVAL OF SPRING
(In which all the persons of the drama, not excepting Sruti-bhushan, unite on the main stage in the dance of Spring.)
Come
