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.