RED OLEANDERS

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

RED OLEANDERS

A DRAMA IN ONE ACT

BY

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1925

COPYRIGHT

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

[Pg 1]

RED OLEANDERS

A DRAMA IN ONE ACT

The Curtain rises on a window covered by a network of intricate pattern in front of the Palace.

(Nandini and Kishôr, a digger boy, come in.)

Kishôr

Have you enough flowers, Nandini? Here, I have brought some more.

Nandini

Run away, Kishôr, do,—back to your work, quick! You’ll be late again.

[Pg 2]

Kishôr

I must steal some time from my digging and digging of nuggets to bring out flowers to you.

Nandini

But they’ll punish you, my boy, if they know.

Kishôr

You said you must have red oleanders. I am glad they’re hard to find in this place. Only one tree I discovered after days of search, nearly hidden away behind a rubbish heap.

Nandini

Show it me. I’ll go and gather the flowers myself.

Kishôr

Don’t be cruel, Nandini. This tree is my one secret which none shall [Pg 3]know. I’ve always envied Bishu, he can sing to you songs that are his own. From now I shall have flowers which you’ll have to take only from my hands.

Nandini

But it breaks my heart to know that those brutes punish you.

Kishôr

It makes these flowers all the more preciously mine. They come from my pain.

Nandini

It pains me to accept anything which brings you hurt.

Kishôr

I dream of dying one day for your sake, Nandini.

Nandini

Is there nothing I can give you in return?

[Pg 4]

Kishôr

Promise that you will accept flowers only from me every morning.

Nandini

I will. But do be careful.

Kishôr

No, no, I shall be rash and defy their blows. My homage shall be my daily triumph.

[Goes.

(Professor comes in.)

Professor

Nandini!

Nandini

Yes, Professor!

Professor

Why do you come and startle one, now and again, and then pass by? [Pg 5]Since you awaken a cry in our hearts, what harm if you stop a moment in answer to it? Let us talk a little.

Nandini

What need have you of me?

Professor

If you talk of need, look over there!—You’ll see our tunnel-diggers creeping out of the holes like worms, with loads of things of need. In this Yaksha Town all our treasure is of gold, the secret treasure of the dust. But the gold which is you, beautiful one, is not of the dust, but of the light which never owns any bond.

Nandini

Over and over again you say this to me. What makes you wonder at me so, Professor?

[Pg 6]

Professor

The sunlight gleaming through the forest thickets surprises nobody, but the light that breaks through a cracked wall is quite a different thing. In Yaksha Town, you are this light that startles. Tell me, what d’you think of this place?

Nandini

It puzzles me to see a whole city thrusting its head underground, groping with both hands in the dark. You dig tunnels in the underworld and come out with dead wealth that the earth has kept buried for ages past.

Professor

The Jinn of that dead wealth we invoke. If we can enslave him the whole world lies at our feet.

[Pg 7]

Nandini

Then again, you hide your king behind a wall of netting. Is it for fear of people finding out that he’s a man?

Professor

As the ghost of our dead wealth is fearfully potent so is our ghostly royalty, made hazy by this net, with its inhuman power to frighten people.

Nandini

All you say is a kind of made-up talk.

Professor

Of course made-up. The naked is without a credential, it’s the made-up clothes that define us. It delights me immensely to discuss philosophy with you.

[Pg 8]

Nandini

That’s strange! You who burrow day and night in a mass of yellow pages, like your diggers in the bowels of the earth,—why waste your time on me?

Professor

The privilege of wasting time proves one’s wealth of time. We poor drudges are insects in a hole in this solid toil, you are the evening star in the rich sky of leisure. When we see you, our wings grow restless. Come to my room. For a moment allow me to be reckless in my waste of time.

Nandini

No, not now. I have come to see your king, in his room.

Professor

How can you enter through the screen?

[Pg 9]

Nandini

I shall find my way through the network.

Professor

Do you know, Nandini, I too live behind a network of scholarship. I am an unmitigated scholar, just as our king is an unmitigated king.

Nandini

You are laughing at me, Professor. But tell me, when they brought me here, why didn’t they bring my Rañjan also?

Professor

It’s their way to snatch things by fractions. But why should you want to drag your life’s treasure down amongst this dead wealth of ours?

Nandini

Because I know he can put a beating heart behind these dead ribs.

[Pg 10]

Professor

Your own presence is puzzling enough for our governors here; if Rañjan also comes they will be in despair.

Nandini

They do not know how comic they are,—Rañjan will bring God’s own laughter in their midst and startle them into life.

Professor

Divine laughter is the sunlight that melts ice, but not stones. Only the pressure of gross muscle can move our governors.

Nandini

My Rañjan’s strength is like that of your river, Sankhini,—it can laugh and yet it can break. Let me tell you a little secret news of mine. I shall meet Rañjan to-day.

[Pg 11]

Professor

Who told you that?

Nandini

Yes, yes, we shall meet. The news has come.

Professor

Through what way could news come and yet evade the Governor?

Nandini

Through the same way that brings news of the coming Spring.

Professor

You mean it’s in the air,—like the rumours which flush in the colour of the sky, or flutter in the dance of the wind?

Nandini

I won’t say more now. When Rañjan comes you’ll see for yourself [Pg 12]how rumours in the air come down on earth.

Professor

Once she begins to talk of Rañjan there’s no stopping Nandini’s mouth! Well, well, I have my books, let me take my shelter behind them,—I dare not go on with this.

(Coming back after going a little way.)

Nandini, let me ask you one thing. Aren’t you frightened of our Yaksha Town?

Nandini

Why should I feel afraid?

Professor

All creatures fear an eclipse, not the full sun. Yaksha Town is a city under eclipse. The Shadow Demon, who lives in the gold caves, has eaten into it. It is not whole itself, neither does it allow any one else to remain whole. [Pg 13]Listen to me, don’t stay here. When you go, these pits will yawn all the wider for us, I know,—yet I say to you, fly; go and live happily with Rañjan where people in their drunken fury don’t tear the earth’s veil to pieces.

(Going a little way and then coming back.)

Nandini, will you give me a flower from your chain of red oleanders?

Nandini

Why, what will you do with it?

Professor

How often have I thought that there is some omen in these ornaments of yours.

Nandini

I don’t know of any.

[Pg 14]

Professor

Perhaps your fate knows. In that red there is not only beauty, but also the fascination of fear.

Nandini

Fear! Even in me?

Professor

I don’t know what event you have come to write with that crimson tint. There was the gardenia and the tuberose, there was white jasmine,—why did you leave them all and choose this flower? Do you know, we often choose our own fate thus, without knowing it!

Nandini

Rañjan sometimes calls me Red Oleander. I feel that the colour of his love is red,—that red I wear on my neck, on my breast, on my arms.

[Pg 15]

Professor

Well, just give me one of those flowers,—a moment’s gift,—let me try to understand the meaning of its colour.

Nandini

Here, take it. Rañjan is coming to-day,—out of my heart’s delight I give it to you.

[Professor goes.

(Gôkul, a digger, comes in.)

Gôkul

Turn this way, woman! Who are you? I’ve never yet been able to understand you.

Nandini

I’m nothing more than what you see. What need have you to understand me?

[Pg 16]

Gôkul

I don’t trust what I can’t understand. For what purpose has the King brought you here?

Nandini

Because I serve no purpose of his.

Gôkul

You know some spell, I’m sure. You’re snaring everybody here. You’re a witch! Those who are bewitched by your beauty will come to their death.

Nandini

That death will not be yours, Gôkul, never fear! You’ll die digging.

Gôkul

Let me see, let me see, what’s that dangling over your forehead?

[Pg 17]

Nandini

Only a tassel of red oleanders.

Gôkul

What does it mean?

Nandini

It has no meaning at all.

Gôkul

I don’t believe you, one bit! You’re up to some trickery. Some evil will befall us before the day is out. That’s why you have got yourself up like this. Oh you terrible, terrible witch!

Nandini

What makes you think me so terrible?

Gôkul

You’re looking like an ominous torch [Pg 18]with a red flame. Let me go and warn these fools.—Beware! Beware!

[He goes.

Nandini (knocking at the network)

Do you hear me?

A voice (from behind the scenes)

I hear you. But don’t call me,—I have no time.

Nandini

Let me come inside. My heart is full to-day.

Voice

No, not into my room.

Nandini

I have brought you a garland of white kunda flowers.

Voice

Wear it yourself.

[Pg 19]

Nandini

My own garland is of red oleanders.

Voice

I am like a mountain peak, my bareness is my adornment.

Nandini

Like waterfalls running down the peak, this white flower-chain will sway on your breast. Open the netting, I want to come in.

Voice

I can’t allow it. There’s no time.

Nandini

Don’t you hear that song in the distance?

Voice

What are they singing?

[Pg 20]

Nandini

The autumn song:

Don’t you see the September sun is spreading the glow of the ripening corn in the air?

You too come out, King!—out into the fields.

Voice

Fields! What could I do there?

Nandini

The work there is much simpler than your work in Yaksha Town.

[Pg 21]

Voice

It’s the simple which is impossible for me. A lake cannot run out dancing, like a frolicsome waterfall. Leave me now, I have no time.

Nandini

The day you let me into your storehouse the blocks of gold did not surprise me,—what amazed me was the immense strength with which you lifted and arranged them. But can blocks of gold ever answer to the swinging rhythm of your arms in the same way as fields of corn? Are you not afraid, King, of handling the dead wealth of the earth?

Voice

What is there to fear?

Nandini

The living heart of the earth gives [Pg 22]itself up in love and life and beauty, but when you rend its bosom and disturb the dead, you bring up with your booty the curse of its dark demon, blind and hard, cruel and envious. Don’t you see everybody here is either angry, or suspicious, or afraid?

Voice

Curse?

Nandini

Yes, the curse of grabbing and killing.

Voice

But we bring up strength. Does not my strength please you, Nandini?

Nandini

Indeed it does. Therefore I ask you, come out into the light, step on the ground, let the earth be glad.

[Pg 23]

Voice

Do you know, Nandini, you too are half-hidden behind an evasion,—you mystery of beauty! I want to pluck you out of it, to grasp you within my closed fist, to handle you, scrutinise you,—or else to break you to pieces.

Nandini

Whatever do you mean?

Voice

Why can’t I strain out the tint of your oleanders and build a dream out of it to keep before my eyes? Those few frail petals guard it and hinder me. Within you there is the same hindrance, so strong because so soft. Nandini, will you tell me what you think of me?

[Pg 24]

Nandini

Not now, you have no time. Let me go.

Voice

No, no, don’t go. Do tell me what you think of me.

Nandini

Have I not told you often enough? I think you are wonderful. Strength swelling up in your arms, like rolling clouds before a storm,—it makes my heart dance within me.

Voice

And when your heart dances to see Rañjan, is that also——

Nandini

Let that be,—you have no time.

[Pg 25]

Voice

There is time,—for this; only tell me, then go.

Nandini

That dance rhythm is different, you won’t understand.

Voice

I will, I must understand.

Nandini

I can’t explain it clearly. Let me go.

Voice

Tell me, at least, whether you like me.

Nandini

Yes, I like you.

Voice

The same as Rañjan?

[Pg 26]

Nandini

Again the same question! I tell you, you don’t understand these things.

Voice

I do understand, a little. I know what the difference is between Rañjan and me. In me there is only strength, in Rañjan there is magic.

Nandini

What d’you mean by magic?

Voice

Shall I explain? Underground there are blocks of stone, iron, gold,—there you have the image of strength. On the surface grows the grass, the flower blossoms,—there you have the play of magic. I can extract gold from the fearsome depths of secrecy, but to [Pg 27]wrest that magic from the near at hand I fail.

Nandini

You have no end of things, yet why always covet?

Voice

All I possess is so much dead weight. No increase of gold can create a particle of a touchstone, no increase of power can ever come up to youth. I can only guard by force. If I had Rañjan’s youth I could leave you free and yet hold you fast. My time is spent in knotting the binding rope, but, alas, everything else can be kept tied, except joy.

Nandini

It is you who entangle yourself in your own net, then why keep on fretting?

[Pg 28]

Voice

You will never understand. I, who am a desert, stretch out my hand to you, a tiny blade of grass, and cry: I am parched, I am bare, I am weary. The flaming thirst of this desert licks up one fertile field after another, only to enlarge itself,—it can never annex the life of the frailest of grasses.

Nandini

One would never think you were so tired.

Voice

One day, Nandini, in a far off land, I saw a mountain as weary as myself. I could not guess that all its stones were aching inwardly. One night I heard a noise, as if some giant’s evil dream had moaned and moaned and suddenly snapped asunder. Next morning I found the mountain had [Pg 29]disappeared in the chasm of a yawning earthquake. That made me understand how overgrown power crushes itself inwardly by its own weight. I see in you something quite opposite.

Nandini

What is it you see in me?

Voice

The dance rhythm of the All.

Nandini

I don’t understand.

Voice

The rhythm that lightens the enormous weight of matter. To that rhythm the bands of stars and planets go about dancing from sky to sky, like so many minstrel boys. It is that rhythm, Nandini, that makes you [Pg 30]so simple, so perfect. How small you are compared to me, yet I envy you.

Nandini

You have cut yourself off from everybody and so deprived yourself.

Voice

I keep myself apart, that it may become easy for me to plunder the world’s big treasure-houses. Nevertheless there are gifts that your little flower-like fingers can easily reach, but not all the strength of my body,—gifts hidden in God’s closed hand. That hand I must force open some day.

Nandini

When you talk like that, I don’t follow you. Let me go.

Voice

Go then; but here, I stretch out [Pg 31]this hand of mine from my window, place your hand on it for a moment.

Nandini

Only a hand, and the rest of you hidden? It frightens me!

Voice

Everybody flies from me because they only see my hand.

But if I wished to hold you with all of me, would you come to me, Nandini?

Nandini

Why talk like this when you wouldn’t even let me come into your room?

Voice

My busy time, overloaded with work, dragged along against obstruction, is not for you. On the day when you can arrive, full sail before the wind, into the bosom of my full [Pg 32]leisure, the hour of welcome will strike. Even if that wind be a storm, all will be well. That hour is not yet come.

Nandini

Rañjan will bring that delightful wind here, I tell you. He carries his holiday-time with him, even in his work.

Voice

He has the red wine of oleanders to fill up his cup. But to me you want to pass on an empty leisure. Where is the wine?

Nandini

Let me go now.

Voice

Answer me first.

Nandini

How to fulfil leisure you will learn from Rañjan. He is so beautiful.

[Pg 33]

Voice

Beauty only responds to beauty. Its lute strings break when force tries to snatch an answer. But no more of this. Go, go away, or else there will be trouble.

Nandini

I go. But I tell you, my Rañjan is coming to-day. You cannot prevent him.

[She goes.

(Phágulal, the digger, and his wife Chandrá, come in.)

Phágulal

My bottle, Chandrá? Out with it!

Chandrá

What! Drink from early morning?

[Pg 34]

Phágulal

Isn’t it our holiday? Yesterday was the fast day of the War Goddess. To-day they worship the Flag.

Chandrá

Must you drink just because it’s a holiday? In our village home, on feast days, you never——

Phágulal

Freedom itself was enough for the holidays in our village. The caged bird spends its holiday knocking against the bars. In Yaksha Town holidays are more of a nuisance than work.

Chandrá

Let’s go back home, then.

Phágulal

The road to our home is closed for ever.

[Pg 35]

Chandrá

How’s that?

Phágulal

Our homes don’t yield them any profit.

Chandrá

But are we closely fitted to their profits only,—like husks to grains of corn,—with nothing of us left over?

Phágulal

Our mad Bishu says: to remain whole is useful only for the lamb itself; those who eat it prefer to leave out its horns and hooves, and even object to its bleating when butchered.

There’s the madcap, singing as he goes.

Chandrá

It’s only the last few days that his songs have burst forth.

[Pg 36]

Phágulal

That’s true.

Chandrá

He’s been possessed by Nandini. She draws his heart and his songs too.

Phágulal

No wonder.

Chandrá

Indeed! You’d better be careful. She’ll next be bringing out songs from your throat,—which would be rough on our neighbours. The witch is up to all kinds of tricks, and is sure to bring misfortune.

Phágulal

Bishu’s misfortune is nothing recent, he knew Nandini long before coming here.

[Pg 37]

Chandrá

(Calling out) I say, Bishu, come this way. Maybe you’ll find somebody here also to listen to your singing,—it won’t be altogether thrown away.

(Bishu comes in, singing.)

Bishu (sings)

Chandrá

I know who the boatman of your dreams is.

Bishu

How should you know from outside? You haven’t seen from inside my boat.

[Pg 38]

Chandrá

Your boat is going to get wrecked one of these days, let me tell you,—by that pet Nandini of yours.

(Gôkul, the digger, comes in.)

Gôkul

I say, Bishu, I don’t quite trust your Nandini.

Bishu

Why, what has she done?

Gôkul

She does nothing, that’s the rub. I don’t understand the way she goes on.

Chandrá

To see her flaunting her prettiness all over the place makes me sick.

Gôkul

We can trust features that are plain enough to understand.

[Pg 39]

Bishu

I know the atmosphere of this place breeds contempt for beauty. There must be beauty even in hell; but nobody there can understand it, that’s their cruellest punishment.

Chandrá

Maybe we are fools, but even our Governor here can’t stand her—d’you know that?

Bishu

Take care, Chandrá, lest you catch the infection of our Governor’s eyes—then perhaps yours too will redden at the sight of us. What say you, Phágulal?

Phágulal

To tell you the truth, brother, when I see Nandini, I feel ashamed to think of myself. I can’t utter a word when she’s there.

[Pg 40]

Gôkul

The day will come when you’ll know her to your cost,—perhaps too late.

[Goes.

Phágulal

Bishu, your friend Chandrá wants to know why we drink.

Bishu

God in his mercy has everywhere provided a liberal allowance of drink. We men with our arms supply the output of our muscles, you women with yours supply the wine of embraces. In this world there is hunger to force us to work; but there’s also the green of the woods, the gold of the sunshine, to make us drunk with their holiday-call.

Chandrá

You call these things drink?

[Pg 41]

Bishu

Yes, drinks of life, an endless stream of intoxication. Take my case. I come to this place; I am set to work burgling the underworld; for me nature’s own ration of spirits is stopped; so my inner man craves the artificial wine of the market place.

(Sings)

Chandrá

Come, brother, let us fly from here.

Bishu