Canto 12 - At Wits End
In his search for Seetha thus
Sauntered Ravan’s place Hanuman.
Failed as he to find her still
Felt she could have died of grief.
Finding her no yielding type
Ravan could have got her hanged.
Or else Seetha should’ve gone
Underground in Ravan’s land.
Were he to go with blank page
Would Lord Sugreev approve that?
Would not all the pains it took
For him to reach Ravan’s land
Come to naught were she not found?
When he would go back in time
Won’t his peers and Lords as well
Get round him for Seetha’s news?
Were he to show empty hand
Won’t that break the hearts of all?
What would elder Jambavan say?
How Prince Angad would take it!
So as not to fail them all
Not by finding Seetha now,
Better I pull up socks my well
So to pass through pathless woods.
If one gives up not on hopes
Tends that towards goal his own.
Resolved he thus not to sulk
But to press then even more.
Having felt thus he went back
To all those places he had been.
After making one more round
Of the harem of Ravan
Stepped he out of Pushpak then.
Entered he then those dwellings
Annexed to Ravan’s Royal Court.
Searched he then the town proper
That was Lanka’s headquarters.
As though to leave none to chance
Sauntered Hanuman suburbs there all.
Left he none of private parks
Nor he spared a public place.
But for woman of hideous looks
Found he not there Rama’s spouse.
Saw he though there stunners too
Found he Seetha nowhere there.
Saw he many an angel there
In them in vain he searched her.
Drew he blank in captive cells
Lodged where women by Ravan brought.
Having failed to find her there
Agonized Hanuman even more.
What a waste of time it was
To come to Lanka in her search!
Sank he on his knees Hanuman
Despaired of that mission failure.