r--for the joy of his own heart.
Wherefore wisely check thy sorrow--it is I must hence depart.
Tis the wife's most holy duty--law on earth without repeal,
That her life she offer freely--when demands her husband's weal.
And e'en now, a deed so noble--hath its meed of pride and bliss,
In the next world life eternal--and unending fame in this.
'Tis a high, yet certain duty--that my life I thus resign,
'Tis thy right, as thy advantage--both the willing deed enjoin--
All for which a wife is wedded--long erenow through me thou'st won,
Blooming son and gentle daughter--that my debt is paid and done.
Thou may'st well support our children--gently guard, when I am gone,
I shall have no power to guard them--nor support them, left alone.
Oh, despoiled of thy assistance--lord of me, and all I have,
How these little ones from ruin--how my hapless self to save:
Widow'd, reft of thee, and helpless--with two children in their youth,
How maintain my son, and daughter--in the path of right and truth.
From the lustful, from the haughty--how shall I our child protect,
When they seek thy blameless daughter--by a father's awe unchecked.
As the birds in numbers swarming--gather o'er the earth-strewn corn,
Thus the men round some sad widow--of her noble lord forlorn.
Thus by all the rude and reckless--with profane desires pursued,[154]
How shall I the path still follow--loved and honoured by the good.
This thy dear, thy only daughter--this pure maiden innocent,
How to teach the way of goodness--where her sire, her fathers went.
How can I instil the virtues--in the bosom of our child,
Helpless and beset on all sides--as thou would'st in duty skilled.
Round thy unprotected daughter--Sudras like[155] to holy lore,
Scorning me in their wild passion--will unworthy suitors pour.
And if I refuse to give her--mindful of thy virtuous course,
As the storks the rice of offering[156]--they will bear her off by force.
Should I see my son degenerate--like his noble sire no more,
In the power of the unworthy--the sweet daughter that I bore;
And myself, the world's scorn, wandering--so as scarce myself to know,
Of proud men the scoff, the outcast--I should die of shame and woe.
And bereft of me, my children--and without thy aid to cherish,
As the fish when water fails them--both would miserably perish.
Thus of all the