Page:Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.djvu/63

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
SAVITRI.
27
Part IV.

As still Savitri sat beside
Her husband dying,—dying fast,
She saw a stranger slowly glide
Beneath the boughs that shrunk aghast.
Upon his head he wore a crown
That shimmered in the doubtful light;
His vestment scarlet reached low down,
His waist, a golden girdle dight.
His skin was dark as bronze; his face
Irradiate, and yet severe;
His eyes had much of love and grace,
But glowed so bright, they filled with fear.

A string was in the stranger's hand
Noosed at its end. Her terrors now
Savitri scarcely could command.
Upon the sod beneath a bough,
She gently laid her husband's head,
And in obeisance bent her brow.
"No mortal form is thine,"—she said,
"Beseech thee say what god art thou?