ஶ்ரீ அரவிந்தரின் " The Viziers of Bassora " நாடக மொழிபெயர்ப்பு - பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள்
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
வணக்கம்.
இதுவரையிலும் என்னுடைய கவிதைகளையும் மொழிபெயர்ப்புகளையும் படித்துக் கருத்துக்களை அவ்வப்போது எடுத்துரைத்து அவற்றில் இருக்கும் பிழைகளைச் சுட்டிக்காட்டி என்னுடைய படைப்புகளை மேம்படுத்திவரும் அன்பர்களாகிய உங்கள் அனைவருக்கும் வணக்கம். இந்த இழையையும் நீங்கள் ஆதரிக்குமாறு கேட்டுக் கொள்கிறேன்.
நன்றி.
சிவசூரி.
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் - நாடகப் பாத்திரங்கள்
HAROUN AL RASHEED, Caliph.
ஹரெளன் அல் ரஷீது, கலீஃபா
JAAFAR, his Vizier.
SHAIKH IBRAHIM, Superintendent of the Caliph's gardens.
ஷேக் இப்ராஹிம், கலீஃபாவின் தோட்ட மேற்பார்வையாளன்
MESROUR, Haroun's friend and companion'.
MAHOMED BIN SULEYMAN OF ZAYNI, Haroun's cousin,
King of Bassora.
மொஹமது பின் சுலைமான், ஸைனி, ஹரெளனின் ஒன்றுவிட்ட சோதரன்; பஸ்ஸோரா நாட்டின் மன்னன்
ALFAZZAL IBN SAWY, his chief Vizier.
அல்ஃபஸல் இபின் ஸாவி, அவனுடைய முதலமைச்சன்
NUREDDENE, son of Alfazzal.
நூரெதீன் - அல்ஃபஸலின் மகன்
ALMUENE BIN KHAKAN, second Vizier of Bassora.
அல்மியூன் பின் காக்கன், பஸ்ஸோரா நாட்டின் மற்றோர் அமைச்சன்
FAREED, his son.
ஃபரீது, அவனுடைய மகன்
SALAR, confident of Alzayni.
சாலரன், அல்ஸைனியின் நம்பிக்கைக்குப் பாத்திரமானவன்
MURAD, a Turk Captain of Police in Bassora.
மூரது, துருக்கிய இனத்தைச் சார்ந்த பஸ்ஸோரா நகரக் காவல் படைத் தலைவன்
AJEBE, nephew of Almuene.
அஜீபு, அல்மியூனின் மருமான்
SUNJAR, a Chamberlain of the Palace of Bassora.
சஞ்சரன். பஸ்ஸோரா அரண்மனை மணியம்
அஜீஸ், அப்துல்லா - பஸ்ஸோரா நாட்டு வாணிகர்கள்
MUAZZIM, a broker.
AZEEM, steward of Alfazzal.
அஸீம், அல்ஃபஸலின் வீட்டுமணியம்
HARKOOS, an Ethiopian eunuch in Ibn Sawy's household.
ஹர்கூஸ், இபின் ஸாவியின் வீட்டுப்பணிசெய்யும் ஓர் எத்தியோபிய பேடி.
KAREEM, a fisherman of Bagdad.
கரீம், பாக்தாத் நகரச் செம்படவன்
SLAVES, SOLDIERS, GUARDS, EXECUTIONERS,
MERCHANTS, BROKERS.
AMEENA, wife of Alfazzal Ibn Sawy.
ஆமீனா, அல்ஃபஸல் இபின் ஸாவியின் மனைவி
DOONYA, his niece.
ANICE-ALJALICE, a Persian slave-girl.
அனீஸி -அல்ஜாலிஸ், ஒரு பாரசீக அடிமைப்பெண்
KHATOON, wife of Almuene, sister of Ameena.
காத்தூனி, அல்மியூனின் மனைவி, ஆமீனாவின் சோதரி
பால்கிஸ்,மைமூனா -சோதரிகள்,அஜீபு வின் அடிமைப்பெண்கள்
SLAVE-GIRLS.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Subbaier Ramasami
Ramasami
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Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
K.R. Kumar
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Siva Siva
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Ramamoorthy Ramachandran
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Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
KKSR
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NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
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VETTAI ANANTHANARAYANAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் (5)
Act I
Bassora.
Scene 1
An antechamber in the Palace.
Murad, Sunjar.
MURAD
Chamberlain, I tell thee I will not bear it an hour longer than
it takes my feet to carry me to the King’s audience-room and
my voice to number my wrongs. Let him choose between me, a
man and one made in God’s image, and this brutish amalgam of
gorilla and Barbary ape whom he calls his Vizier.
SUNJAR
You are not alone in your wrongs; all Bassora and half the Court
complain of his tyrannies.
MURAD
And as if all were too little for his heavy-handed malice, he must
saddle us with his son’s misdoings too, who is as like him as the
young baboon is to the adult ape.
SUNJAR
It is a cub, a monkey of mischief, a rod on the soles would go
far to tame. But who shall dare apply that? Murad, be wary.
The King, — who is the King and therefore blameless, — will
not have his black angel dispraised. Complain rather to Alfazzal
Ibn Sawy, the good Vizier.
MURAD
The kind Alfazzal! Bassora is bright only because of his presence.
SUNJAR
I believe you. He has the serenity and brightness of a nature that
never willingly did hurt to man or living thing. I think sometimes
every good kindly man is like the moon and carries a halo, while
a chill cloud moves with dark and malignant natures. When we
are near them, we feel it.
Enter Ibn Sawy.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் (6)
IBN SAWY (to himself )
The fairest of all slavegirls! here’s a task!
Why, my wild handsome roisterer, Nureddene,
My hunter of girls, my snare for hearts of virgins,
Could do this better. And he would strangely like
The mission; but I think his pretty purchase
Would hardly come undamaged through to the owner.
A perilous transit that would be! the rogue!
Ten thousand golden pieces hardly buy
Such wonders, — so much wealth to go so idly!
But princes must have sweet and pleasant things
To ease their labours more than common men.
Their labour is not common who are here
The Almighty’s burdened high vicegerents charged
With difficult justice and calm-visaged rule.
SUNJAR
The peace of the Prophet with thee, thou best of Viziers.
MURAD
The peace, Alfazzal Ibn Sawy.
IBN SAWY
And to you also peace. You here, my Captain?
The city’s business?
MURAD
Vizier, and my own!
I would impeach the Vizier Almuene
Before our royal master.
IBN SAWY
You’ll do unwisely.
A dark and dangerous mind is Almuene’s,
Yet are there parts in him that well deserve
The favour he enjoys, although too proudly
He uses it and with much personal malice.
Complain not to the King against him, Murad.
He’ll weigh his merits with your grievances,
Find these small jealous trifles, those superlative,
And in the end conceive a mute displeasure
Against you.
MURAD
I will be guided by you, sir.
IBN SAWY
My honest Turk, you will do well.
SUNJAR
He’s here.
Enter Almuene.
Subbaier Ramasami
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Enter Almuene.
MURAD
The peace upon you, son of Khakan.
ALMUENE
Captain,
You govern harshly. Change your methods, captain,
Your manners too. You are a Turk; I know you.
MURAD
I govern Bassora more honestly
Than you the kingdom.
ALMUENE
Soldier! rude Turcoman!
IBN SAWY
Nay, brother Almuene! Why are you angry?
ALMUENE
That he misgoverns.
IBN SAWY
In what peculiar instance?
ALMUENE
I’ll tell you. A city gang the other day
Battered my little mild Fareed most beastly
With staves and cudgels. This fellow’s bribed police,
By him instructed, held a ruffian candle
To the outrage. When the rogues were caught, they lied
And got them off before a fool, a Kazi.
அல்மியூன் நுழைகிறான்.
MURAD
The Vizier’s son, as all our city knows,
A misformed urchin full of budding evil,
Ranges the city like a ruffian, shielded
Under his father’s formidable name;
And those who lay their hands on him, commit
Not outrage, but a rescue.
ALMUENE
Turk, I know you.
ALMUENE
Turk, I know you.
IBN SAWY
In all fraternal kindness hear me speak.
What Murad says, is truth. For your Fareed,
However before you he blinks angelically,
Abroad he roars half-devil. Never, Vizier,
Was such a scandal until now allowed
In any Moslem town. Why, it is just
Such barbarous outrage as in Christian cities
May walk unquestioned, not in Bassora
Or any seat of culture. It should be mended.
ALMUENE
Brother, your Nureddene is not all blameless.
He has a name!
IBN SAWY
His are the first wild startings
Of a bold generous nature. Mettled steeds,
When they’ve been managed, are the best to mount.
So will my son. If your Fareed’s brute courses
As easily turn to gold, I shall be glad.
ALMUENE
Let him be anything, he is a Vizier’s son.
The Turk forgot that.
IBN SAWY
These are maxims, brother,
Unsuited to our Moslem polity.
They savour of barbarous Europe. But in Islam
All men are equal underneath the King.
ALMUENE
Well, brother. Turk, you are excused.
MURAD
Excused!
Viziers, the peace.
IBN SAWY
I’ll follow you.
ALMUENE
Turk, the peace!
IBN SAWY
Peace, brother. See to it, brother.
Exit with Murad.
ALMUENE
Brother, peace.
Would I not gladly tweak your ears and nose
And catch your brotherly beard to pluck it out
With sweet fraternal pulls? Faugh, you babbler
Of virtuous nothings! some day I’ll have you preach
Under the bastinado; you’ll howl, you’ll howl
Rare sermons there.
(seeing Sunjar)
You! you! you spy? you eavesdrop?
And I must be rebuked with this to hear it!
Well, I’ll remember you.
SUNJAR
Sir, I beseech you,
I had no smallest purpose to offend.
ALMUENE
I know you, dog! When my back’s turned, you bark,
But whine before me. You shall be remembered.
Exit.
SUNJAR
There goest thou, Almuene, the son of Khakan,
Dog’s son, dog’s father, and thyself a dog.
Thy birth was where thy end shall be, a dunghill.
Exit.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Scene 2
A room in Almuene’s house.
Almuene, Khatoon.
KHATOON
You have indulged the boy till he has lost
The likeness even of manhood. God’s great stamp
And heavenly image on his mint’s defaced,
Rubbed out, and only the brute metal left
Which never shall find currency again
Among his angels.
ALMUENE
Oh always clamour, clamour!
I had been happier bedded with a slave
Whom I could beat to sense when she was froward.
Oh, you’ld have done no less by me, I know,
Although my rank’s as far above your birth
As some white star in heaven o’erpeers the muck
Of foulest stables, had I not great kin
And swords in the background to avenge me.
ALMUENE
Termagant,
Some day I’ll have you stripped and soundly caned
By your own women, if you grow not gentler.
KHATOON
I shall be glad some day to find your courage.
Enter Fareed, jumping and gyrating.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
FAREED
Oh father, father, father, father, father!
KHATOON
What means this idiot clamour? Senseless child,
Can you not walk like some more human thing
Or talk like one at least?
ALMUENE
Dame, check once more
My gallant boy, try once again to break
His fine and natural spirit with your chidings,
I’ll drive your teeth in, lady or no lady.
FAREED
Do, father, break her teeth! She’s always scolding.
Sometimes she beats me when you’re out. Do break them,
I shall so laugh!
ALMUENE
My gamesome goblin!
KHATOON
You prompt him
To hate his mother; but do not lightly think
The devil you strive to raise up from that hell
Which lurks within us all, sealed commonly
By human shame and Allah’s supreme grace, —
But you! you scrape away the seal, would take
The full flame of the inferno, not the gusts
Of smoke jet out in ordinary men; —
Think not this imp will limit with his mother
Unnatural revolt! You will repent this.
Exit.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
FAREED
Girl, father! such a girl! a girl of girls!
Buy me my girl!
ALMUENE
What girl, you leaping madcap?
FAREED
In the slave-market for ten thousand pieces.
Such hands! such eyes! such hips! such legs! I am
Impatient till my elbows meet around her.
ALMUENE
My amorous wagtail! What, my pretty hunchback,
You have your trophies too among the girls
No less than the straight dainty Nureddene,
Our Vizier’s pride? Ay, you have broken seals?
You have picked locks, my burglar?
FAREED
You have given me,
You and my mother, such a wicked hump
To walk about with, the girls jeer at me.
I have only a chance with blind ones. ’Tis a shame.
NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
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Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 11
Act 1, Sc 2 continues...
ALMUENE
How will you make your slavegirl love you, hunch?
FAREED
She’ll be my slavegirl and she’ll have to love me.
ALMUENE
Whom would you marry, hunchback, for a wager?
Will the King’s daughter tempt you?
FAREED
Pooh! I’ve got
My eye upon my uncle’s pretty niece.
I like her.
ALMUENE
The Vizier, my peculiar hatred!
Wagtail, you must not marry there.
FAREED
I hate him too
And partly for that cause will marry her,
To beat her twice a day and let him know it.
He will be grieved to the heart.
ALMUENE
You’re my own lad.
FAREED
And then she’s such a nice tame pretty thing,
Will sob and tremble, kiss me when she’s told,
Not like my mother, frown, scold, nag all day.
But, dad, my girl! buy me my girl!
ALMUENE
Come, wagtail.
Ten thousand pieces! ’tis exorbitant.
Two thousand, not a dirham more. The seller
Does wisely if he takes it, glad to get
A piastre for her. Call the slaves, Fareed.
FAREED
Hooray! hoop! what a time I’ll have! Cafoor!
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
ALMUENE
’Tis thus a boy should be trained up, not checked,
Rebuked and punished till the natural man
Is killed in him and a tame virtuous block
Replace the lusty pattern Nature made.
அல்மியூன்:
I do not value at a brazen coin
The man who has no vices in his blood,
Never took toll of women’s lips in youth
Nor warmed his nights with wine. Your moralists
Teach one thing, Nature quite another; which of these
Is likely to be right?
Yes, cultivate,
But on the plan that she has mapped. Give way,
Give way to the inspired blood of youth
And you shall have a man, no scrupulous fool,
No ethical malingerer in the fray;
A man to lord it over other men,
Soldier or Vizier or adventurous merchant,
The breed of Samson.
Man with such youth your armies.
Of such is an imperial people made
Who send their colonists and conquerors
Across the world, till the wide earth contains
One language only and a single rule.
Yes, Nature is your grand imperialist,
No moral sermonizer.
Rude, hardy stocks
Transplant themselves, expand, outlast the storms
And heat and cold, not slips too gently nurtured
Or lapped in hothouse warmth.
Who conquered earth
For Islam? Arabs trained in robbery,
Heroes, robust in body and desire.
I’ll get this slavegirl for Fareed to help
His education on. Be lusty, son,
And breed me grandsons like you for my stock.
Exit.
NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Ramamoorthy Ramachandran
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Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
AZIZ
The Vizier!
Enter Ibn Sawy.
ABDULLAH
Noble Alfazzal! There will be
Good sales today in the market, since his feet
Have trod here.
MERCHANTS
Welcome, welcome, noble Vizier.
IBN SAWY
The peace be on you all. I thank you, sirs.
What, good Abdullah, all goes well at home?
ABDULLAH
My brother’s failed, sir.
IBN SAWY
Make me your treasurer.
I am ashamed to think good men should want
While I indulge in superfluities.
Well, broker, how’s the market? Have you slaves
That I can profit by?
MUAZZIM
Admired Vizier,
There’s nothing worth the kindness of your gaze.
Yet do but tell me what you need, I’ll fit you
With stuff quite sound and at an honest price.
The other brokers are mere pillagers,
But me you know.
IBN SAWY
If there’s an honest broker,
You are that marvel, I can swear so much.
Now pick me out your sweetest thing in girls,
Perfect in beauty, wise as Sheban Balkis,
Yet more in charm than Helen of the Greeks,
Then name your price.
MUAZZIM
I have the very marvel.
You shall not see her equal in a century.
She has the Koran and the law by heart;
Song, motion, music and calligraphy
Are natural to her, and she contains
All science in one corner of her mind;
Yet learning less than wit; and either lost
In the mere sweetness of her speech and beauty.
You’ll hardly have her within fifteen thousand;
She is a nonpareil.
IBN SAWY
It is a sum.
MUAZZIM
Nay, see her only. Khalid, bring the girl.
Exit Khalid.
Subbaier Ramasami
I had been happier bedded with a slave
Whom I could beat to sense when she was froward.
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Subbaier Ramasami
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Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 14
Act 1, Sc 3 continues...
MUAZZIM
Nay, see her only. Khalid, bring the girl.
Exit Khalid.
I should not ask you, sir, but has your son
Authority from you to buy? He has
The promise of a necklet from me.
IBN SAWY
A necklet!
MUAZZIM
A costly trifle. “Send it to such an house,”
He tells me like a prince, “and dun my father
For the amount. I know you’ll clap it on
As high as Elburz, you old swindler. Fleece him!”
He is a merry lad.
IBN SAWY
Fleece me! The rogue!
The handsome naughty rogue! I’ll pull his curls for this.
The house? To whom is it given?
MUAZZIM
Well, sir, it is
A girl, a dainty Christian. I fear she has given
Something more precious far than what he pays her with.
IBN SAWY
No doubt, no doubt. The rogue! quite conscienceless.
I’m glad you told me of this. Dun me! Well,
The rascal’s frank enough, that is one comfort;
He adds no meaner vices, fear or lying,
To his impetuous faults. The blood is good
And in the end will bear him through. There’s hope.
I’ll come, Muazzim.
Exit.
MUAZZIM
The son repeats the father,
But with a dash of quicker, wilder blood.
Here’s Khalid with the Persian.
Enter Khalid with Anice-aljalice.
Khalid, run
And call the Vizier; he was here just now.
Exit Khalid. Enter Almuene, Fareed and Slaves.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Exit Khalid. Enter Almuene, Fareed and Slaves.
FAREED
There she is, father; there, there, there!
ALMUENE
You deal, sir? I know you well. Today be more honest than is
your wont. Is she bid for?
MUAZZIM (aside)
Iblis straight out of Hell with his hobgoblin! (aloud)Sir, we are
waiting for the good Vizier, who is to bid for her.
ALMUENE
Here is the Vizier and he bids for her.
Two thousand for the lass. Who bids against me?
MUAZZIM
Vizier Almuene, you are too great to find any opposers, and you
know it; but as you are great, I pray you bid greatly. Her least
price is ten thousand.
ALMUENE
Ten thousand, swindler! Do you dare to cheat
In open market? two thousand’s her outside.
This spindly common wench! Accept it, broker,
Or call for bids; refuse at your worst risk.
MUAZZIM
It is not the rule of these sales. I appeal to you, gentlemen.
What, do you all steal off from my neighbourhood? Vizier, she
is already bespoken by your elder, Ibn Sawy.
ALMUENE
I know your broking tricks, you shallow rascal.
Call for more bids, you cheater, call for bids.
MUAZZIM
Abuse me not, Almuene bin Khakan! There is justice in Bassora
and the good Ibn Sawy will decide between us.
ALMUENE
Us! between us! Thou dirty broking cheat,
Am I thy equal? Throw him the money, Nubian.
But if he boggle, seize him, have him flat
And powerfully persuade him with your sticks.
You, beauty, come. What, hussy, you draw back?
FAREED
Father, let me get behind her with my horse-tickler. I will trot
her home in a twinkling.
MUAZZIM
This is flat tyranny. I will appeal
To the good Vizier and our gracious King.
ALMUENE
Impudent thief! have first thy punishment
And howl appeal between the blows. Seize him.
Enter Khalid with Ibn Sawy.
MUAZZIM
Protect me, Vizier, from this unjust man,
This tyrant.
IBN SAWY
What is this?
MUAZZIM
He takes by force
The perfect slavegirl I had kept for you,
And at a beggarly, low, niggard’s price
I’ld not accept for a black kitchen-girl;
Then, when I named you, fell to tyrant rage,
Ordering his slaves to beat me.
IBN SAWY
Is this true,
Vizier?
ALMUENE
Someone beat out my foggy brains!
I took it for a trick, a broker’s trick.
What, you bespoke the girl? You know I’ld lose
My hand and tongue rather than they should hurt you.
Well, well, begin the bidding.
சிவசூரி
(தொடரும்)
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Act 1, Sc 3
BN SAWY
First, a word.
Vizier, this purchase is not for myself;
’Tis for the King. I deem you far too loyal
To bid against your master, needlessly
Taxing his treasuries. But if you will,
You have the right. By justice and the law
The meanest may compete here. Do you bid?
ALMUENE (to himself )
He baulks me everywhere. (aloud) The perfect slavegirl?
No, I’ll not bid. Yet it is most unlucky,
My son has set his heart upon this very girl.
Will you not let him have her, Ibn Sawy?
IBN SAWY
I grieve that he must be so disappointed,
But there’s no help. Were it my own dear son
And he should pine to death for her, I would not
Indulge him here. The King comes first.
ALMUENE
Quite first.
Well, shall I see you at your house today?
IBN SAWY
State business, brother?
ALMUENE
Our states and how to join
Their link`
ed loves yet closer. I have a thought
Touching Fareed here and your orphaned niece.
IBN SAWY
I understand you. We will talk of it.
Brother, you know my mind about your boy.
He is too wild and rude; I would not trust
My dear soft girl into such dangerous hands,
Unless he showed a quick and strange amendment.
ALMUENE
It is the wildness of his youth. Provide him
A wife and he will soon domesticate.
Pen these wild torrents into quiet dams
And they will fertilize the kingdom, brother.
IBN SAWY
I hope so. Well, we’ll talk.
ALMUENE
Fareed, come with me.
FAREED
I’ll have my girl! I’ll beat them all and have her!
ALMUENE
Wagtail, your uncle takes her.
FAREED
Break his head then,
Whip the proud broker up and down the square
And take her without payment. Why are you
The Vizier, if you cannot do your will?
ALMUENE
Madcap, she’s for the King, be quiet.
FAREED
Oh!
ALMUENE
Come, I will buy you prettier girls than this
By hundredweights and tons.
FAREED
She has such hair! such legs!
God damn the Vizier and the King and you!
I’ll take her yet.
Exit in a rage, followed by Almuene and Slaves.
MUAZZIM
This is a budding Vizier!
Sir, look at her; were mine mere broker’s praises?
IBN SAWY
You, mistress? Does the earth contain such beauty?
MUAZZIM
Did I not tell you so?
IBN SAWY
’Tis marvellous,
And if her mind be equal to her body,
She is an emperor’s portion. What’s your name,
Sweet wonder?
ANICE
Anice-aljalice they call me.
IBN SAWY
What is your history?
ANICE
My parents sold me
In the great famine.
IBN SAWY
What, is your mould indeed a thing of earth?
Peri, have you not come disguised from heaven
To snare us with your lovely smiles, you marvel?
ANICE
I am a slave and mortal.
IBN SAWY
Prove me that.
ANICE
A Peri, sir, has wings, but I have none.
IBN SAWY
I see that difference only. Well now, her price?
MUAZZIM
She is a gift to thee, O Vizier.
IBN SAWY
Ceremony?
I rate her value at ten thousand clear.
MUAZZIM
It is the price expected at your hands,
Though from a private purse we’ld have full value.
Keep her ten days with you; her beauty’s worn
With journeying and its harsh fatigues. Give rest,
Give baths, give food, then shade your eyes to gaze at her.
IBN SAWY
You counsel wisely. There’s my poaching rascal, —
But I will seal her fast even from his questings.
The peace, Muazzim.
MUAZZIM
Peace, thou good Vizier, loaded with our blessings.
Exeunt.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா வாஜிர்கள் 17
அங்கம் 1, களம் 4
A room in the women’s apartments of Ibn Sawy’s house.
Ameena, Doonya.
AMEENA
Call, Doonya, to the eunuch once again,
And ask if Nureddene has come.
DOONYA
Mother,
What is the use? you know he has not come.
Why do you fret your heart, sweet mother, for him?
Bad coins are never lost.
AMEENA
Fie, Doonya! bad?
He is not bad, but wild, a trifle wild;
And the one little fault’s like a stray curl
Among his clustering golden qualities,
That graces more than it disfigures him.
Bad coin! Oh, Doonya, even the purest gold
Has some alloy, so do not call him bad.
DOONYA
Sweet, silly mother! why, I called him that
Just to hear you defend him.
AMEENA
You laugh at me, —
Oh, you all laugh. And yet I will maintain
My Nureddene’s the dearest lad in Bassora, —
Let him disprove’t who can, — in all this realm
The beautifullest and kindest.
DOONYA
So the girls think
Through all our city. Oh, I laugh at you
And at myself. I’m sure I am as bad
A sister to him as you are a mother.
AMEENA
I a bad mother, Doonya?
DOONYA
The worst possible.
You spoil him;so do I;so does his father;
So does all Bassora, — especially the girls!
AMEENA
Why, who could be unkind to him or see
His merry eyes grow clouded with remorse?
DOONYA
Is it he who comes?
She goes out and returns.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா வாஜிர்கள் 18
அங்கம் 1, களம் 4 தொடர்கிறது....
DOONYA
Is it he who comes?
She goes out and returns.
It is my uncle, mother,
And there’s a girl with him, — I think she is
A copy of Nureddene in white and red.
Why, as I looked downstairs, she smiled up at me
And took the heart out of my body with the smile.
Are you going to have a rival at your years,
Poor mother? ’Tis late for uncle to go wooing.
AMEENA
A rival, you mad girl!
Enter Ibn Sawy and Anice-aljalice.
IBN SAWY
Come forward, child.
Here is a slavegirl, Ameena, I’ve bought
For our great Sultan. Keep her from your son,
Your scapegrace son. My life upon it, dame!
If he touches her, I’m gone.
AMEENA
I’ll see to it.
IBN SAWY
Let a strong eunuch with a naked sword
Stand at her door. Bathe her and feed her daintily.
Your son! see that he does not wheedle you.
You’ve spoilt him so, there is no trusting you,
You tender, foolish heart.
AMEENA
I spoil him, husband!
IBN SAWY
Most damnably. Whenever I would turn
Wholesomely harsh to him, you come between
And coax my anger. Therefore he is spoilt.
DOONYA
Oh, uncle mine, when you are harsh, the world
Grows darker with your frown. See, how I tremble!
IBN SAWY
Oh, are you there, my little satirist?
When were you whipped last?
DOONYA
When you last were harsh.
IBN SAWY
You shall be married off. I will not have you
Mocking an old and reverend man like me.
Whom will you marry, chit?
DOONYA
An old, old man,
Just such a smiling harsh old man as you,
None else.
IBN SAWY
And not a boy like young Fareed?
His father wishes it; he too, I think.
DOONYA
Throw me from this high window to the court,
Or tell me ere the day and I will leap.
IBN SAWY
Is he so bad? I thought it. No, my niece,
You marry not with Khakan’s evil stock,
Although there were no other bridegroom living.
I’ll leave you, Ameena. Anice, I have a son,
Handsome and wanton. Let him not behold you!
You are wise and spirited beyond your years,
Above your sex; I trust in your discretion.
ANICE
I will be careful, sir. Yet trust in bars
And portals, not in me. If he should find me,
I am his slave and born to do his will.
IBN SAWY
Be careful, dame.
Exit.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 19
Act 1, Sc 4 continues...
AMEENA
How fair you are, small lady!
’Tis better truly he should see you not.
Doonya, be careful of her. I’ll go before
And make your casket ready for you, gem.
Bring her behind me, Doonya.
Exit.
DOONYA (leaping on Anice)
What’s your name,
You smiling wonder, what’s your name? your name?
ANICE
If you will let me a little breathe, I’ll tell you.
DOONYA
Tell it me without breathing.
ANICE
It’s too long.
DOONYA
Let’s hear it.
ANICE
Anice-aljalice.
DOONYA
Anice,
There is a sea of laughter in your body;
I find it billowing there beneath the calm
And rippling sweetly out in smiles. You beauty!
And I love laughers. Wherefore for the King?
Why not for me? Does the King ever laugh,
I wonder?
She runs out.
ANICE
My King is here. But they would give me
To some thick-bearded swart and grizzled Sultan
Who’ld see me once a week and keep me penned
For service, not for mirth and love. My prince
Is like our Persian boys, fair-faced and merry,
Fronting the world with glad and open looks
That make the heart rejoice. Ten days! ’tis much.
Kingdoms have toppled in ten days.
Doonya returns.
DOONYA
Come, Anice.
I wish my cousin Nureddene had come
And caught you here. What fun it would have been!
Exeunt.
NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 20
அங்கம் 1 முடிவடைந்து விட்டது. அதில் முரண்பட்ட இரு அமைச்சர்களை நேரில் கண்டுவிட்டோம்.. அதேபோல் முற்றிலும் மாறுபட்ட குணநலன்கள் உடைய அவர்தம் பிள்ளைகள் பற்றியும் தெரிந்துகொண்டோம். தீய அமைச்சனின் தீமையே உருவாகிய பிள்ளை ஃபரீதைப் பார்த்துவிட்டோம். வெறுப்பை ஊட்டும் குணங்களுடன் பார்ப்பதற்கு விகாரமாகத் தெரியும் கூனுடைய தோற்றமுடன் அவனைக் கண்டுவிட்டோம். அவனுக்கு முற்றிலும் மாறுபட்டவனாக, பேரெழிலான கட்டிளங் காளையாக அனைவரையும் வசீகரிக்கும் உருவத்துடன் எல்லோரையும் நேசிப்பவனாகவும் ஆனால் ஊர் சுற்றித் திரிபவன் ஆகவும் நமது நாடகத்தின் நாயகனைப் பற்றிச் சிலர் சொல்லக் கேட்டுவிட்டோம்.
இப்போது அவனையும் நேரில் பார்க்கப் போகிறோம். நாயகனும் நாயகியும் ஒருவரை ஒருவர் சந்திக்கப் போகின்றனர்.மூன்று நாள்கள் வீட்டுக்கே வராமல் ஊர்சுற்றித் திரிந்துவிட்டு வரும் மகனைக் கடிந்துகொள்ளவேண்டும் என்று பல ஒத்திகைகள் செய்து பார்த்துக் கொள்ளும் அவனுடைய தாயார் ஆமீனா அவனைக் கண்டவுடன் தன்னை மறந்து மகிழ்ந்து சிரிப்பதையும் காணப் போகிறோம். அன்னையை மகிழ்விக்கக் கற்பனைக் குதிரையில் ஏறி அரபு நாட்டு இரவுக் கதைகளில் வருவதுபோல் வீர தீர சாகசங்களை எல்லாம் தான் செய்யப் போவதாக அவன் அடுக்கிக் கொண்டே போவது படிப்பவருக்கு இன்பம் ஊட்டும். இடையிடையே சிரிப்பூட்டும் தூன்யா. காட்சிகள் இரண்டும் மூன்றும் ஒரே சிரிப்புமயந்தான்.
மூன்றாம் களத்தில்தான் காதல் வசப்பட்ட நாயகன் உணர்ச்சியில் சிக்கிப் பேசும்
அன்பு மொழிகள் வரப்போகின்றன. மிகவும் சுவை மிக்க அந்தக் காதல் வார்த்தைகளைக் கேட்க சற்றுப் பொறுத்துத்தான் ஆகவேண்டும்.இனியும் தாமதிக்காமல் அங்கம் 2-ல் நுழைவோம், வாரும்.
அங்கம் 2, களம் 1
Act II
Bassora.
Scene 1
Ibn Sawy’s house. An upper chamber in the women’s
apartments.
Doonya, Anice-aljalice.
DOONYA
You living sweet romance, you come from Persia.
’Tis there, I think, they fall in love at sight?
ANICE
But will you help me, Doonya, will you help me?
To him, to him, not to that grizzled King!
I am near Heaven with Hell that’s waiting for me.
DOONYA
I know, I know! you feel as I would, child,
If told that in ten days I had to marry
My cruel boisterous cousin. I will help you.
But strange! to see him merely pass and love him!
Did he look back at you?
ANICE
While he could see me.
DOONYA
Yes, that was Nureddene.
ANICE
You’ll help me?
DOONYA
Yes,
With all my heart and soul and brains and body.
But how? My uncle’s orders are so strict!
ANICE
And do you always heed your uncle’s orders,
You dutiful niece?
DOONYA
Rigidly, when they suit me.
It shall be done although my punishment
Were even to wed Fareed. But who can say
When he’ll come home?
ANICE
Comes he not daily then?
DOONYA
When he’s not hawking. Questing, child, for doves,
White doves.
ANICE
I’ll stop all that when he is mine.
DOONYA
Will you? and yet I think you will, nor find it
A task at all. You can do it?
ANICE
I will.
DOONYA
You have relieved my conscience of a load.
Who blames me? I do this to reform my cousin,
Gravely, deliberately, with serious thought,
And am quite virtuously disobedient.
I almost feel a long white beard upon my chin,
The thing’s so wise and sober. Gravely, gravely!
She marches out, solemnly stroking
an imaginary beard.
ANICE
My heart beats reassuringly within.
The destined Prince will come and all bad spells
Be broken; then — You angels up in Heaven
Who guard sweet shame and woman’s modesty,
Hide deep your searching eyes with those bright wings.
It is not wantonness, though in a slave
Permitted, spurs me forward. O tonight
Let sleep your pens, in your rebuking volumes
Record not this. I am on such a brink,
A hound of horror baying at my heels,
I cannot pause to think what fire of blushes
I choose to flee through, nor how safe cold eyes
May censure me. I pass though I should burn.
You cannot bid me pick my careful steps!
Oh, no, the danger is too near. I run
By the one road that’s left me, to escape,
To escape, into the very arms I love.
Curtain
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 21
அங்கம் 2, களம் 2
Act 2, Sc 2
Ibn Sawy’s house. A room in the women’s apartments.
Ameena, Doonya.
AMEENA
Has he come in?
DOONYA
He has.
AMEENA
For three long days!
I will reprove him. Call him to me, Doonya.
I will be stern.
DOONYA
That’s right. Lips closer there!
And just try hard to frown. That’s mildly grim
And ought to shake him. Now you spoil all by laughing.
AMEENA
Away, you madcap! Call him here.
DOONYA
The culprit
Presents himself unsummoned.
Enter Nureddene.
NUREDDENE (at the door)
Ayoob, Ayoob!
A bowl of sherbet in my chamber.
(entering)
Well, mother,
Here I am back, your errant gadabout,
Your vagabond scapegrace, tired of truancy
And very hungry for my mother’s arms.
It’s good to see you smile!
AMEENA
My dearest son!
NUREDDENE
Why, Doonya, cousin, what wild face is this?
DOONYA
This is a frown, a frown, upon my forehead.
Do you not tremble when you see it? No?
To tell you the plain truth, my wandering brother,
We both were practising a careful grimness
And meant to wither you with darting flames
From basilisk eyes and words more sharp than swords,
Burn you and frizzle into simmering cinders.
Oh, you’ld have been a dolorous spectacle
Before we had finished with you! Ask her else.
AMEENA
Heed her not, Nureddene. But tell me, child,
Is this well done to wander vagrant-like
Leaving your mother to anxieties
And such alarms? Oh, we will have to take
Some measure with you!
DOONYA
Oh, now, now, we are stern!
NUREDDENE
Mother, I only range abroad and learn
Of manners and of men to fit myself
For the after-time.
DOONYA
True, true, and of the taste
Of different wines and qualities of girls;
What eyes Damascus sends, the Cairene sort,
Bagdad’s red lips and Yemen’s willowy figures,
Who has the smallest waist in Bassora,
Or who the shapeliest little foot moonbright
Beneath her anklets. These are sciences
And should be learned by sober masculine graduates.
Should they not, cousin?
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
NUREDDENE
These too are not amiss,
Doonya, for world-wise men. And do you think,
Dear mother, I could learn the busy world
Here, in your lap, within the shadowy calm
Of women’s chambers?
AMEENA
No, child, no. You see,
Doonya, it is not all so bad, this wandering.
And I am sure they much o’erstate his faults
Who tell of them.
DOONYA
Oh, this is very grim!
But, Nureddene, you must not be so wild;
Or when we are gone, what will you do, if now
You learn no prudence? All your patrimony
You’ll waste, — and then?
NUREDDENE
Then, mother, life begins.
I shall go forth, a daring errant-knight,
To my true country out in faeryland;
Wander among the Moors, see Granada,
The delicate city made of faery stone,
Cairo, Tangier, Aleppo, Trebizond;
Or in the East, where old enchantment dwells,
Find Pekin of the wooden piles, Delhi
Of the idolaters, its brazen pillar
And huge seven-storied temples sculpture-fretted,
And o’er romantic regions quite unknown
Preach Islam, sword in hand; sell bales of spice
From Bassora to Java and Japan;
Then on through undiscovered islands, seas
And Oceans yet unnamed; yes, everywhere
Catch Danger by the throat where I can find him,
Butcher blood-belching dragons with my blade,
Cut ogres, chop giants, tickle cormorants, —
Then in some land, I have not settled which, —
DOONYA
Call it Cumcatchia or Nonsensicum
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
NUREDDENE
Marry a Soldan’s daughter, sweet of eye
And crowned with gracious hair, deserving her
By deeds impossible; conduct her armies
Against her foemen, enter iron-walled
Cities besieged with the loud clang of war,
Rescue imperilled kingdoms, mid the smoke
Of desperate cities slay victorious kings,
And so extend my lady’s empire wide —
DOONYA
From Bassora to the quite distant moon.
NUREDDENE
There I shall reign with beauty and splendour round
In a great palace built of porphyry,
Marble and jasper, with strange columns made
Of coral and fair walls bright-arabesqued
On which the Koran shall be written out
In sapphires and in rubies. I will sit
Drinking from cups of gold delightful wine,
Watching slow dances, while the immortal strain
Of music wanders to its silent home.
And I shall have bright concubines and slaves
Around me crowding all my glorious house
With beautiful faces, thick as stars in heaven.
My wealth shall be so great that I can spend
Millions each day nor feel the want. I’ll give
Till there shall be no poor in all my realms,
Nor any grieved; for I shall every night,
Like Haroun Alrasheed, the mighty Caliph,
Wander disguised with Jaafar and Mesrour
Redressing wrongs, repressing Almuenes,
And set up noble men like my dear father
In lofty places, giving priceless boons,
An unseen Providence to all mankind.
DOONYA
And you will marry me, dear Nureddene,
To Jaafar, your great Vizier, so that we
Shall never part, but every blessed night
Drink and be merry in your halls, and live
Felicitously for ever and for aye,
So long as full moons shine and brains go wrong
And wine is drunk. I make my suit to you from now,
Caliph of Faeryland.
NUREDDENE
Your suit is granted.
And meanwhile, Doonya, I amuse myself
With nearer kingdoms, Miriam’s wavy locks
And Shazarath-al-Durr’s sweet voice of song.
சிவசூரி
(தொடரும்)
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 24
அங்கம் 2, களம் 2 தொடர்கிறது....
DOONYA
And meanwhile, brother, till you get your kingdom,
We shall be grim, quite grim.
AMEENA
Your father’s angry.
I have not known him yet so moved. My child,
Do not force us to punish you.
NUREDDENE
With kisses?
Look, Doonya, at these two dear hypocrites,
She with her gentle honey-worded threats,
He with his stormings. Pooh! I care not for you.
AMEENA
Not care!
NUREDDENE
No, not a jot for him or you,
My little mother, or only just so much
As a small kiss is worth.
AMEENA
I told you, Doonya,
He was the dearest boy in all the world,
The best, the kindest.
DOONYA
Oh yes, you told me that.
And was the dearest boy in all the world
Rummaging the regions for the dearest girl,
While the admiring sun danced round the welkin
A triple circuit?
NUREDDENE
I have found her, Doonya.
DOONYA
The backward glance?
AMEENA
Your father!
Enter Ibn Sawy.
IBN SAWY
Ameena,
I’m called to the palace; something is afoot.
Ah, rascal! ah, you villain! you have come?
NUREDDENE
Sir, a long hour.
IBN SAWY
Rogue! scamp! what do you mean?
Knave, is my house a caravanserai
For you to lodge in when it is your pleasure?
NUREDDENE
It is the happiest home in Bassora,
Where the two kindest parents in the world
Excuse their vagabond son.
IBN SAWY
Hum! well! What, fellow,
You will buy trinkets? you will have me dunned?
And fleeced?
NUREDDENE
Did he dun you? I hope he asked
A fitting price; I told him to.
IBN SAWY
Sir, sir,
What game is this to buy your hussies trinkets
And send your father in the bill? Who taught you
This rule of conduct?
NUREDDENE
You, sir.
IBN SAWY
I, rascal?
NUREDDENE
You told me
That debt must be avoided like a sin.
What other way could I avoid it, sir,
Yet give the trinket?
IBN SAWY
Logic of impudence!
Tell me, you curled wine-bibbing Aristotle,
Did I tell you also to have mistresses
And buy them trinkets?
NUREDDENE
Not in so many words.
IBN SAWY
So many devils!
NUREDDENE
But since you did not marry me
Nor buy a beautiful slave for home delight,
I thought you’ld have me range outside for pleasures
To get experience of the busy world.
If ’twas an oversight, it may be mended.
IBN SAWY
I’m dumb!
NUREDDENE
There is a Persian Muazzim sells,
Whom buy for me, — her rate’s ten thousand pieces —
IBN SAWY
A Persian! Muazzim sells! ten thousand pieces!
(to himself )
Where grows this tangle? I become afraid.
NUREDDENE
Whom buy for me, I swear I’ll be at home
Quite four days out of seven.
IBN SAWY
Hear me, young villain!
I’m called to the palace, but when I return,
Look to be bastinadoed, look to be curried
In boiling water. (aside) I must blind him well.
Ten days I shall be busy with affairs;
Then for your slavegirl. Bid the broker keep her.
Oh, I forgot! I swore to pull your curls
For your offences.
NUREDDENE
I must not let you, sir;
They are no longer my own property.
There’s not a lock that has not been bespoken
For a memento.
IBN SAWY
What! what! Impudent rascal!
(aside)
You handsome laughing rogue! Hear, Ameena,
Let Doonya sleep with Anice every night.
No, come; hear farther.
Exit with Ameena.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
O Doonya, Doonya, tall, sweet, laughing Doonya!
I am in love, — drowned, strangled, dead with longing.
நூரெதீன்:
For the world’s Persian? But she’s sold by now.
NUREDDENE
I asked Muazzim.
DOONYA
A quite absolute liar.
NUREDDENE
O if she is, I’ll leave all other cares
And only seek her through an empty world.
What, could one backward glance sweep you so forward?
NUREDDENE
Why, Doonya!
DOONYA
Brother, I know a thing I know
You do not know. A sweet bird sang it to me
In an upper chamber.
NUREDDENE
Doonya, you’re full of something,
And I must hear it.
DOONYA
What will you give me for it?
None of your nighthawk kisses, cousin mine!
But a mild loving kind fraternal pledge
I’ll not refuse.
NUREDDENE
You are the wickedest, dearest girl
In all the world, the maddest sweetest sister
A sighing lover ever had. Now tell me.
More, more! I must be flattered.
No more. Come, mischief,
You’ll keep me in suspense?
(pulls her ears)
DOONYA
Enough, enough!
The Persian — listen and perpend, O lover!
Lend ear while I unfold my wondrous tale,
A tale long, curled and with a tip, — Oh Lord!
I’ll clip my tale. The Persian’s bought for you
And in the upper chambers.
NUREDDENE
Doonya, Doonya!
But those two loving hypocrites, —
DOONYA
All’s meant
To be surprise.
NUREDDENE
Surprise me no surprises.
I am on fire,Doonya, I am on fire.
The upper chambers?
DOONYA
Stop, stop! You do not know;
There is an ogre at her door, a black
White-tusked huge-muscled hideous grinning giant,
Of mood uproarious, horrible of limb,
An Ethiopian fell ycleped Harkoos.
NUREDDENE
The eunuch!
DOONYA
Stop, stop, stop. He has a sword,
A fearful, forceful, formidable blade.
NUREDDENE
Your eunuch and his sword! I mount to heaven
And who shall stop me?
Exit.
DOONYA
Stop, stop! yet stop! He’s off
Like bolt from bowstring. Now the game’s afoot
And Bassora’s Soldan, Mohamad Alzayni,
May whistle for his slavegirl. I am Fate,
For I upset the plans of Viziers and of Kings.
Exit.
NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
apartments.
Doonya, sleeping on a couch. Enter Nureddene and Anice.
NUREDDENE
I told you ’twas the morning.
ANICE
Morning so early?
This moment ’twas the evening star; is that
The matin lustre?
NUREDDENE
There is a star at watch beside the moon
Waiting to see you ere it leave the skies.
Is it your sister Peri?
ANICE
It is our star
And guards us both.
NUREDDENE
It is the star of Anice,
The star of Anice-aljalice who came
From Persia guided by its silver beams
Into these arms of vagrant Nureddene
Which keep her till the end.
Sweet, I possess you!
Till now I could not patently believe it.
Strange, strange that I who nothing have deserved,
Should win what all would covet! We are fools
Who reach at baubles taking them for stars.
But I have wandered by the way and staled
The freshness of delight with gadding pleasures,
Anticipated Love’s perfect fruit with sour
And random berries void of real savour.
Oh fool! had I but known! What can I say
But once more that I have deserved you not,
Who yet must take you, knowing my undesert,
Whatever come hereafter?
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
ANICE
The house is stirring.
NUREDDENE
Who is this sleeping here? My cousin Doonya!
DOONYA (waking)
Is morning come? My blessing on you, children.
Be good and kind, dears; love each other, darlings.
NUREDDENE
Dame Mischief, thanks; thanks, Mother Madcap.
DOONYA
Now, whither?
NUREDDENE
To earth from Paradise.
DOONYA
Wait, wait! You must not
Walk off the stage before your part is done.
The situation now with open eyes
And lifted hands and chidings. You’ll be whipped,
Anice, and Nureddene packed off to Mecca
On penitential legs; I shall be married.
(opening the door)
(opening the door)
Oh, our fell Ethiopian snoozing here?
Snore, noble ogre, snore louder than nature
To excuse your gloomy skin from worse than thwacks.
Wait for me, Nureddene.
Exit.
ANICE
They will be angry.
NUREDDENE
Oh, with two smiles I’ll buy an easy pardon.
ANICE
Whatever comes, we are each other’s now.
NUREDDENE
Nothing will come to us but happy days,
You, my surpassing jewel, on my neck
Closer to me than my own heartbeats.
ANICE
Yes,
Closer than kisses, closer than delight,
Close only as love whom sorrow and delight
Cannot diminish, nor long absence change
Nor daily prodigality of joy
Expend immortal love.
NUREDDENE
You have the lore.
Doonya returns.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 28
Act 2, Sc 3
DOONYA
I have told Nuzhath to call mother here.
There will be such a gentle storm.
Enter Ameena at the door.
AMEENA
Harkoos!
Sleeping?
HARKOOS
Gmn — mmn —
DOONYA
Grunted almost like nature,
Thou excellent giant.
AMEENA
Harkoos, dost thou sleep?
HARKOOS
Sleep! I! I was only pondering a text of Koran with closed eyes,
lady. You give us slaves pitiful small time for our devotions; but
’twill all be accounted for hereafter.
AMEENA
And canst thou meditate beneath the lash?
For there thou’lt shortly be.
HARKOOS
Stick or leather, ’tis all one to Harkoos. I will not be cudgelled
out of my straight road to Paradise.
AMEENA
My mind misgives me.
(enters the room)
Was this well done, my child?
NUREDDENE
Dear, think the chiding given; do not pain
Your forehead with a frown.
AMEENA
You, Doonya, too
Were part of this?
DOONYA
Part! you shall not abate
My glory; I am its artificer,
The auxiliary and supplement of Fate.
AMEENA
Quite shameless in your disobedience, Doonya?
Your father’s anger will embrace us all.
NUREDDENE
And nothing worse than the embrace which ends
A chiding and a smile, our fault deserves.
You had a gift for me in your sweet hands
Concealed behind you; I have but reached round
And taken it ere you knew.
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 27அங்கம் 2, களம் 3 தொடர்கிறது..
ANICE
The house is stirring.
NUREDDENE
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 29
Act 3, Sc 3
AMEENA
For you, my son?
She was not for you, she was for the King.
This was your worst fault, child; all others venial
Beside it.
NUREDDENE
For the King! You told me, Doonya,
That she was bought for me, a kind surprise
Intended?
DOONYA
I did;exact!
AMEENA
Such falsehood, Doonya!
DOONYA
No falsehood, none. Purchased she was for him,
For he has got her. And surprise! Well, mother,
Are you not quite surprised? And uncle will be
Most woefully. My cousin and Anice too
Are both caught napping, — all except great Doonya.
No falsehood, mere excess of truth, a bold
Anticipation of the future, mother.
NUREDDENE
I did not know of this. Yet blame not Doonya;
For had I known, I would have run with haste
More breathless to demand my own from Fate.
AMEENA
What will your father think? I am afraid.
He was most urgent, grave beyond his wont.
Absent yourself awhile and let me bear
The first keen breathings of his anger.
NUREDDENE
The King!
And if he were the Caliph of the world,
He should not have my love. Come, fellow-culprit.
Exit with Doonya.
AMEENA
Harkoos, go fetch your master here; and stiffen
The muscles of your back. Negligent servant!
HARKOOS
’Tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! leather or stick! ’Tis
the way of this wicked and weary world.
Exit.
AMEENA
Yet, Anice, tell me, is’t too late? Alas!
Your cheeks and lowered eyes confess the fault.
I fear your nature and your nurture, child,
Are not so beautiful as is your face.
Could you not have forbidden this?
ANICE
Lady,
Remember my condition. Can a slave
Forbid or order? We are only trained
To meek and quick obedience; and what’s virtue
In freemen is in us a deep offence.
Do you command your passions, not on us
Impose that service; ’tis not in our part.
AMEENA
You have a clever brain and a quick tongue.
And yet this speech was hardly like a slave’s!
I will not blame you.
ANICE
I deny not, lady,
My heart consented to this fault.
AMEENA
I know
Who ’twas besieged you, girl, and do not blame
Your heart for yielding where it had no choice.
Go in.
Exit Anice. Enter Harkoos and Ibn Sawy.
IBN SAWY
I hope, I hope that has not chanced
Which I have striven to prevent. This slave
Grins only and mutters gibberish to my questions.
AMEENA
The worst.
IBN SAWY
Why, so! the folly was my own
And I must bear its heavy consequence.
Sir, you shall have your wage for what has happened.
HARKOOS
The way of the world. Whose peg’s loose? Beat Harkoos. Because my young master would climb through the wrong window
and mistake a rope-ladder for the staircase, my back must ache.
Was the windowsill my post? Have I wings to stand upon air or
a Djinn’s eye to see through wood? How bitter is injustice!
IBN SAWY
You shall be thrashed for your poor gift of lying.
AMEENA
Blame none; it was unalterable fate.
IBN SAWY
That name by which we put our sins on God,
Yet shall not so escape. ’Twas our indulgence
Moulded the boy and made him fit for sin;
Which now, by our past mildness hampered quite,
We cannot punish without tyranny.
Offences we have winked at, when they knocked
At foreign doors, how shall we look at close
When they come striking home?
AMEENA
What will you do?
IBN SAWY
The offence here merits death, but not the offender.
Easy solution if the sin could die
And leave the sinner living!
AMEENA
Vizier, you are perplexed, to talk like this.
Because a little’s broken, break not more.
Let Nureddene have Anice-aljalice,
As Fate intended. Buy another slave
Fairer than she is for great Alzayni’s bed,
Return his money to the treasury
And cover up this fault.
IBN SAWY
With lies?
AMEENA
With silence.
IBN SAWY
Will God be silent? will my enemies?
The son of Khakan silent? Ameena,
My children have conspired my shame and death.
AMEENA
Face not the thing so mournfully. Vizier, you want
A woman’s wit beside you in the Court.
Muene may speak; will you be dumb? Whom then
Will the King trust? Collect your wits, be bold,
Be subtle; guard yourself, protect your child.
IBN SAWY
You urge me on a road my weaker heart
Chooses, not reason. But consider, dame,
If we excuse such gross and violent fault
Done in our house, what hope to save our boy, —
Oh, not his body, but the soul within?
’Twill petrify in vice and grow encrusted
With evil as with a leprosy.
AMEENA
Do this.
Show a fierce anger, have a gleaming knife
Close at his throat, let him be terrified.
Then I’ll come in with tears and seem to save him
On pledge of fairer conduct.
IBN SAWY
This has a promise.
Give me a knife and let me try to frame
My looks to anger.
AMEENA
Harkoos, a dagger here!
Harkoos gives his dagger.
IBN SAWY
But see you come not in too early anxious
And mar the game.
AMEENA
Trust me.
IBN SAWY
Go, call my son,
Harkoos; let him not know that I am here.
Exit Harkoos.
Go, Ameena.
Exit Ameena.
Plays oft have serious fruit,
’Tis seen; then why not this? ’tis worth the trial.
Prosper or fail, I must do something quickly
Before I go upon the Caliph’s work
To Roum the mighty. But I hear him come.
Enter Nureddene and Harkoos.
NUREDDENE
You’re sure of it? You shall have gold for this
Kind treason.
HARKOOS
Trust Harkoos; and if he beats me,
Why, sticks are sticks and leather is but leather.
NUREDDENE
Father!
IBN SAWY
O rascal, traitor, villain, imp!
He throws him down on a couch and
holds him under his dagger.
I’ll father you. Prepare, prepare your soul,
Your black and crime-encrusted soul for hell.
I’m death and not your father.
NUREDDENE
Mother, quick!
Help, mother!
Ameena comes hurrying in.
The poor dear old man is mad.
IBN SAWY
Ahh, woman! wherefore do you come so soon?
NUREDDENE
How his eyes roll! Satan, abandon him.
Take him off quickly.
IBN SAWY
Take me off, you villain?
NUREDDENE
Tickle him in the ribs, that’s the best way.
IBN SAWY
Tickle me in the ribs! Impudent villain!
I’ll cut your throat.
AMEENA (frightened)
Husband, what do you? think,
He is your only son.
IBN SAWY
And preferable
I had not him. Better no son than bad ones.
NUREDDENE
Is there no help then?
IBN SAWY
None; prepare!
NUREDDENE
All right.
But let me lie a little easier first.
IBN SAWY
Lie easier! Rogue, your impudence amazes.
You shall lie easier soon on coals of hell.
AMEENA
This goes no farther.
ANICE (looking in)
They are in angry talk.
Oh, kill me rather!
NUREDDENE
Waste not your terrors, sweetheart.
We are rehearsing an old comedy,
“The tyrant father and his graceless son”.
Foolish old man!
IBN SAWY
What! what!
NUREDDENE
See now the end
Of all your headstrong moods and wicked rages
You would indulge yourself in, though I warned you,
Against your gallant handsome virtuous son.
And now they have turned your brain! Vicious indulgence,
How bitter-dusty is thy fruit! Be warned
And put a rein on anger, curb in wrath,
That enemy of man. Oh, thou art grown
A sad example to all angry fathers!
IBN SAWY
Someone had told you of this. (to Harkoos) Grinning villain!
HARKOOS
Oh yes, it is I, of course. Your peg’s loose; beat Harkoos.
IBN SAWY
My peg, you rogue! I’ll loose your peg for you.
NUREDDENE
No, father, let him be, and hear me out.
I swear it was not out of light contempt
For your high dignity and valued life
More precious to me than my blood, if I
Transgressed your will in this. I knew not of it,
Nor that you meant my Anice for the King.
For me I thought her purchased, so was told,
And still believe religiously that Fate
Brought her to Bassora only for me.
IBN SAWY
It was a fault, my child.
NUREDDENE
Which I cannot repent.
IBN SAWY
You are my son, generous and true and bold,
Though faulty. Take the slavegirl then, but swear
Never hereafter mistress, slave or wife
Lies in your arms but only she; neither,
Until herself desire it, mayst thou sell her.
Swear this and keep thy love.
NUREDDENE
Iswear it.
IBN SAWY
Leave us.
Exit Nureddene.
Anice, in care for thee I have required
This oath from him, which he, perhaps, will keep.
Do thou requite it; be to him no less
Than a dear wife.
ANICE
How noble is the nature
That prompts you to enforce on great offenders
Their dearest wishes!
IBN SAWY
Go in, my child; go, Anice.
Exit Anice.
Last night of my departure hence to Roum
To parley with the Greek for great Haroun
I spoke with you, and my long year of absence, —
AMEENA
It is a weary time.
IBN SAWY
Wherein much evil
May chance; and therefore will I leave my children
As safe as God permits. Doonya to nuptials.
The son of Khakan wants her for his cub,
But shall not have her. One shall marry her
Who has the heart and hand to guard her well.
AMEENA
Who, husband?
IBN SAWY
Murad, Captain of the City.
He rises daily in Alzayni’s favour.
AMEENA
He is a Turk. Our noble Arab branch
Were ill engrafted on that savage stock.
IBN SAWY
A prejudice. There is no stock in Islam
Except the Prophet. For our Nureddene,
I will divide my riches in two halves,
Leave one to him and one for you with Murad,
While you are with your kin or seem to be.
AMEENA
Oh wherefore this?
IBN SAWY
’Tis likely that the boy,
Left here in sole command, will waste his wealth
And come to evil. If he’s sober, well;
If not, when he is bare as any rock,
Abandoned by his friends, spewed out by all,
It may be that in this sharp school and beaten
With savage scourges the wild blood in him
May learn sobriety and noble use:
Then rescue him, assist his better nature.
And we shall see too how the loves endure
Betwixt him and the Persian; whether she
Deserves her monarchy in his wild will,
Or, even deserving, keeps it.
AMEENA
But, dear husband,
Shall I not see my boy for a whole year?
IBN SAWY
No tears! Consider it the punishment
Of our too fond indulgent love, — happy
If that be worst. All will end well, I hope,
And I returning, glad, to Bassora
Embrace a son reformed, a happy niece
Nursing her babe, and you, the gentle mother
Like the sweet kindly earth whose patient love
Embraces even our faults and sins. Grant it,
O Allah, if it be at all Thy will.
Exeunt.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Subbaier Ramasami
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 31
தாத் சென்று கலீஃபாவிடம் முறையிட வேண்டும் என்று நூரெதீன் அந்தக் கப்பலில் புறப்படுகிறான்.
இப்படியாக அங்கம் மூன்றில் இருக்கும் ஏழு காட்சிகளையும் நாம் தாண்டி40mail.gmail.com.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
NUREDDENE
Let me absolve these debts,
Then straight with Anice to Bagdad the splendid.
There is the home for hearts and brains and hands,
Not in this petty centre. Core of Islam,
Bagdad, the flood to which all brooks converge.
நூரெதீன்:
தூக்கும் கடன்சுமை போக்குவேன் முதலில்,
பின்னர் நேரே பெருநகர் பாக்தாத்
அன்புடை அனீஸி யுடன்நான் செல்வேன்.
அன்பது பூத்திடும் நன்னகர் அதுவே !
நேர்த்தியாய்ச் செய்த கீர்த்திமா நகரது!
மண்ணிதில் சான்றோர் மலிந்துள நகரது !
புண்ணியர் நிலைநகர்! கண்கவர் கலைநகர்!
பழிதரும் இந்த இழிநகர் வேண்டாம்.
வாக்கால் செயலால் நபிகள் வழிசெலும்
நோக்கால் நோன்புகள் நோற்றிடும் மக்கள்
ஆர்க்கும் ஓடையாய்ப் பார்த்திடப் பெருகி
ஒன்றாய்க் கூடுவர் நன்றே பாக்தாத்.
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
NATARAJAN RAMASESHAN
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
Lalitha & Suryanarayanan
பஸ்ஸோரா அமைச்சர்கள் 34அங்கம் 4, களம் 2 தொடர்கிறது..நூரெதீன்:போலிகள் இடையொளிர் பொன்மணி என்கோ !அனீஸி :எள்ளி நகைத்திட ஏற்றவர் என்கோ !அன்பு நாயக, ஆருயிர் நாயக,
போதையிலும் தள்ளாடினாலும்