How shall I tend, myself as blind, now all my strength of life is gone?
Oh, stay, my child, oh. Part not yet, to Yama's dwelling go not now,
To-morrow forth we all will set,--thy mother and myself and thou:
For both, in grief for thee, and both so helpless, ere another day,
From this dark world, but little loath, shall we depart, death's easy
prey!
And I myself, by Yama's seat, companion of thy darksome way,
The guerdon to thy virtues meet from that great Judge of men will pray.
Because, my boy, in innocence, by wicked deed thou hast been slain,
Rise, where the heroes dwell, who thence ne'er stoop to this dark world
again.
Those that to earth return no more, the sense-subdued, the hermits wise,
Priests their sage masters that adore, to their eternal seats arise.
Those that have studied to the last the Veda's, the Vedanga's page,
Where saintly kings of earth have passed, Nahusa and Yayati sage;
The sires of holy families, the true to wedlock's sacred vow;
And those that cattle, gold, or rice, or lands, with liberal hands
bestow;
That ope th' asylum to th' oppressed, that ever love, and speak the
truth;
Up to the dwellings of the blest, th' eternal, soar thou, best-loved
youth.
For none of such a holy race within the lowest seat may dwell;
But that will be his fatal place by whom my only offspring fell.'

"So groaning deep, that wretched pair, the hermit and his wife, essayed
The meet ablution to prepare, their hands their last faint effort made.
Divine, with glorious body bright, in splendid car of heaven elate,
Before them stood their son in light, and thus consoled their helpless
state: