Act 7 ; Pages 99 -100
SAKUNTALA [seeing the KING pale from suffering]. He doesn’t look like my husband. Who is this who dares to pollute my son with his touch, in spite of the amulet?
BOY [running to his mother] Mamma, this stranger is calling me his son!
KING. My dear, that cruelty I practised on you has come full circle, since now it is I who need to be recognized by you.
SAKUNTALA [to herself]. Heart, be calm, be consoled. My bitter fate has turned compassionate. It is indeed my husband.
KING. My dear,
Memory breaks my black delusion:
Beautiful as Rohini,*
Back with her lord
After his lunar eclipse,
You stand before me.
SAKUNTALA. Victory, victory to my noble husb-
[She breaks off in the middle, her voice choked by tears
KING. Beautiful lady,
Choked by tears, you couldn’t say it,
But the victory is mine-
For in looking on your pale
Unpainted lips, I have at last
Recalled your face.
BOY. Mamma, who is he?
SAKUNTALA. Ask what shares you have in fate, my child.
KING. [falling at SAKUNTALA’s feet].
Let the pain of my rejection
Pass from your heart.
I was deluded, blocked by the dark
From my own good fortune,
Blind as the man who tore at his neck,
Believing his garland a snake.
SAKUNTALA. Arise, my husband! I must have done something terrible in a previous life, and was punished for it at just that time.* If not, why would your gentle heart have hardened towards me? [The KING rises] But how did my lord remember this woman whose portion is pain?
KING. I’ll tell you but first let me pull this barb of sorrow from my heart.
Deluded, I once ignored
A tear that smudged
Your quivering lip,
Now let me wipe away its sister
Trembling on your lash,
And with it my remorse.
[He does so
SAKUNTALA. [seeing the signet ring]. Noble husband, this is the ring!
KING. And when it was recovered, my memory recovered too.
SAKUNTALA. It acted unfaithfully- at the very time I needed to convince my husband, it went missing.
KING. Then let the vine take this flower back as a sign of her reunion with spring.
SAKUNTALA. I don’t trust it now. You wear it, my lord.