Fruitless my penance and an age of pain,
If I whom Indra's self confest his peer,
Secure of Gods, a mortal victor fear.
My soul remembers-now, alas! too late
The words of Brahma which foretold my fate :
Tremble, proud Giant,' thus the warning ran'And fear destruction from unheeded man.
Secure from God and fiend and angel, live,
From faun and serpent, by the boon I give.
Against their power and might thy life is charmed,
Against man only is thy soul unarmed.'
Too well I know the fated hour is nigh;
Then let each leader to his station fly.
Guard every alley with a chosen band,
Let giant warders on the rampart stand,
And let the terror of immortal eyes,
Great Kumbhakarna, from his trance arise.
He in deep slumber, free from care and pain,
Lulled by a charm for many a month has lain.
Let him arise, our bravest, best of all,
And soon the foemen 'neath his arm will fall."
The giant hosts their monarch's word obeyed,
And left his presence trembling and afraid.
They carried flowery garlands, sweet and fresh,
And, for his banquet, loads of blood and flesh.
They reacht the cavern where the slumberer lay-
A mighty cave that stretcht a league each way:
But scarce the strongest could an entrance gain,
So fierce the tempest as he breathed amain.
They found the giant lying on his bed
With his huge limbs at all their length outspread.
Before his face they piled his favourite cheer,
The flesh of buffaloes and boars and deer.
With garlands, heavenly fair, they fanned his face,
And clouds of incense sweetened all the place.
Then moon-bright conchs they sounded loud and long,
And the cave echoed with the giants' song
Then on their breasts they smote with thundering blows,
And higher yet the wild commotion rose,
When the loud cymbal vied with drum and horn,
And fiendish war-cries on the gale upborne
Through all the air in hideous discord spread,
And the birds heard the din and fell down dead.
But Kumbhakarna calmly took his rest:
And they smote fiercely on his shaggy chest
With maces, clubs, and pieces of the rock,
But still he moved not yet nor felt the shock.
Then all united in one effort more
With shell, drum, tabor, and redoubled roar ;
Club, mace, staff, mallet, with strong arms applied,
Rained vigorous blows upon his breast and side;
And screaming elephants were urged to aid,
And beaten camels groaned and horses neighed.
But Kumbhakarna calmly slumbered still.
Then furious wrath began their breasts to fill:
They drencht his forehead with a hundred pails,
They tore his ears and hair with teeth and nails;
They bound together many a murderous mace,
And beat him wildly on the head and face;
And drove wild elephants, with ponderous tread,
Over his mighty limbs and chest and head.
The unusual weight the giant's slumber broke,
He shook his sides and started and awoke;
And, all regardless of the wounds and blows,
Yawning with thirst and faint with hunger, rose.
His jaws like hell gaped terrible and wide,
Red as the sun when glaring o'er the side
Of Meru. Every burning breath he drew
Roared like a mighty wind that rushes through
The cedars on the mountain. Up he raised
His horse-like head, with eyes that fiercely blazed
Like comets; horrible as Death in form
When menacing the worlds with fire and storm.
The giants pointed to the reeking store
Of flesh of buffalo and deer and boar,
And the fiend gorged him with the flesh and blood,
Huge jars of marrow and of wine a flood.
He ended; and the giants ventured near,
And bent their heads in reverence and fear,
And Kumbhakarna looked around with eyes
All glazed and heavy in their first surprize,
And drowsy yet from his late troubled rest
He thus the Rovers of the Night addrest:
"Why have ye called me from my sleep to wake?
None with light cause my rest should dare to break.
Say, is it well with Ravan? Or has need
And fear come on ye, that with heedless speed
Ye thus disturb me? mark the words I say,
The giants' king shall tremble in dismay,
The fire be quencht and Indra's self be slain,
Ere he shall rouse me from my sleep in vain."
The wise Yupaksha humbly thus replied:
"No fiend has dared us, and no god defied.
But gathered men our golden walls assail,
And fear is on us lest their might prevail.
For Rama leads them to the deadly strife,
Burning for vengeance for his ravisht wife.
The hostile flame through Lanka's town has spread,
And Ravan weeps his best and dearest dead.
Nay, e'en our king who never trembled yet
For heavenly hosts or fiends in battle met,
Himself at last the general dread has shared,
By Rama vanquisht and by Rama spared."
Then Kumbhakarna thus in answer spake :
"I will go forth, and deadly vengeance take,
And tread their armies 'neath my conquering feet;
Then, flusht with victory, the king will meet.
The princes' blood shall be my special draught,
By you the gore of all the host be quaffed."
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