[p. 97]
46 Caubolā [Party from Meerzorg, 1967]
A and B are sung as one song bnt the styles of singing of the two sections are different.1
A
I.
rovatī tārā dëī rānī sune putra kā khabar
II.
de de māre sīsa dharani para, more nikase nā prānī
aba sune putra... rovatī tārā...
III.
nainǫ bahatā nirdayī jal, bāgǫ kī kahānī
sune putra...
rovatī...
IV.
chātī lihin lagāy rote mę, rovana lāgī rānī
sune putra...
rovatī...
V.
bidhanā terī kahā bigārī, kahana lagī rānī
sune putra...
rovatī...
B
I.
sira se cunarī utāri ke(rānī) gaṭharī lihina sąbhār
II.
sira para rakha ke cal däī maraghaṭa ke mąjhadhār
III.
gaṭhariyā sira se utārī maraghaṭa ke mąjhadhār.
IV.
āge lā̈ī lakariyā toṛa karī aba agini kī taiyārī
V.
ikalī karatī hai kām nahį̄ hai dūjā nara nārī
VI.
aba āya khaṛe haį bhūta deta rānī ko gārī
A
I.
The lady, queen Tārā, cries, as she hears the news of the son('s death).
[p. 98]
II.
(She) hits her head over and over on the ground; my breath is not passing away.1
Now, as she hears...
The lady...
III.
Water flows from the eyes pitiless(ly) (in this) story of the2 gardens.
As she hears...
The lady...
IV.
In (the course of the) crying (she) embraced (the child) to her bosom; she began to cry (even more?).
As she hears...
The lady...
V.
Oh Fate,3 what wrong did (I do) to you? - (so) the queen began to say.
As she hears...
The lady...
B
I.
The queen removed the headscarf from (her) head and upheld the bundle;4
II.
Having placed (it) on her head she started off (towards the) centre of the cremation ground.
III.
(She) took off the bundle from her head in the centre of the cremation ground.
IV.
(She) broke the wood and brought (it) forward (and) has (sic) now made preparations to (set) fire.
V.
She is doing (all) the work alone; (there) is no second man or woman (to help).
VI.
Now the ghosts have come (round) (and) are standing; they curse5 the queen.
1For the legend of Hariścandra, vide MP. chapters 7 and 8. Having donated all his kingdom to Viśvāmitra, the sage, the king Hariścandra had to sell himself as a slave to a cāṇḍāla, a cremation ground attendant. His wife Śaibyā (Tārā in the song) was sold with her son, Rohitāśva, as a domestic slave. The boy was killed by a snakebite and Śaibyā had to take him to the same cremation ground where her husband was an attendant. Hariścandra, as a matter of duty, demanded the appropriate fee for the cremation which his wife could not furnish. This was his final test and then not only his kingdom but the very life of his son was restored.
1The meaning conveyed is: she wishes to kill herself, but with repeated hitting of her head on the ground her breath is still not passing away. The singer has used the word prāṇī, for rhyme, instead of prāṇa.
2It was in a garden that Tārā's son had been bitten when she was sold as a slave to a master.
3Bidhanā (S. Vidhi, vidhāna), Brahmā, the master of fate.
4Sąbhāranā: to take charge, uphold. Here, perhaps, to prepare or to make. She wrapped the boy's body in a bundle made with her headscarf.
5Lit. ‘give (i.e. articulate) curses to the queen’. Cremation grounds are well known as haunts of ghosts.
