SUDARSHANA. But if you do not cast me off. I will leave you
KING. You have the utmost liberty to do as you like.
SUDARSHANA. I cannot bear your presence! My heart is angry at you. Why did you—but what have you done to me? . . . Why are you like this? Why did they tell me you were fair and handsome? Thou art black, black as night—I shall never, I can never, like you. I have seen what I love—it is soft as cream, delicate as the _shirisha_ flower, beautiful as a butterfly.
KING. It is false as a mirage, empty as a bubble.
SUDARSHANA. Let it bc—but I cannot stand near you—I simply cannot! I must fly away from here. Union with you, it cannot be possible! It cannot be anything but a false union—my mind must inevitably turn away from you.
SUDARSHANA. I have been trying since yesterday—but the more I try, the more rebellious does my heart become. If I stay with you I shall constantly be pursued and hounded by the thought that I am impure, that I am false and faithless.
KING. Well then, you can go as far from me as you like.
SUDARSHANA. I cannot fly away from you—just because you do not prevent my going. Why do you not hold me back, hold me by the hair, saying, “You shall not go”? Why do you not strike me? Oh, punish me, strike me, beat me with violent hands! But your unresisting silence makes me wild—oh, I cannot bear it!
KING. How do you think that I am really silent? How do you know that I am not trying to keep you back?
SUDARSHANA. Oh, no, no !—I cannot bear this—tell me aloud, command me with the voice of thunder, compel me with words that will drown everything else in my ears—do not let me off so easily, so mildly!
KING. I shall leave you free, but why should I let you break away from me?
SUDARSHANA. You will not let me? Well then, I must go!
SUDARSHANA. Then I am not to blame at all. You could have held me back by force, but you did not! You have not hindered me-and now I shall go away. Command your sentinels to prevent my going.
KING. No one will stand in your way. You can go as free as the broken storm-cloud driven by the tempest.
SUDARSHANA. I can resist no more-something in me is impelling me forward—I am breaking away from my anchor! Perhaps I shall sink, but I shall return no more.[_She rushes out._]