MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global

Didst thou, mother, bear the hero fathomless like ocean dread,
Whose unfailing glistening arrows like its countless billows sped,
Didst thou bear that peerless archer all-resistless in his car,
Sweeping with the roar of ocean through the shattered ranks of war?
Didst thou hide the mighty warrior, mortal man of heavcnly birth,
Crushing 'neath his arm of valour all his foemen on the earth,
Didst thou hide the birth and lineage of that chief of deathful ire,
As a man in folds of garments seeks to hide the flaming fire?
Arjun wielder of Gandiva was for us no truer stay
Than was Karna for the Kurus in the battle's dread array,
Monarchs matched not Karna's glory nor his deeds of valour done,
Midst the mighty car-borne warriors mightiest warrior Karna shone!
Woe to us! our eldest brother we have in the battle slain,
And our nearest dearest elder fell upon the gory plain,
Not the death of Abhimanyu from the fair Subbadra torn,
Not the slaughter of the princes by the proud Draupadi borne,
Not the fall of friends and kinsmen and Panchala's mighty host,
Like thy death afflicts my bosom, noble Karna loved and lost!
Monarch's empire, victor's glory, all the treasures earth can yield,
Righteous bliss and heavenly gladness, harvest of the heavenly field,
All that wish can shape and utter, all that nourish hope and pride,
All were ours, O noble Karna, hadst thou rested by our side,
And this carnage of the Kurus these sad eyes had never seen,
Peace had graced our blessed empire, happy would the earth have been!"
Long bewailed the sad Yudhishthir for his elder loved and dead,
And oblation of the water to the noble Karna made,
And the royal dames of Kuru viewed the sight with freshening pain,
Wept to see the good Yudhishthir offering to his brother slain,
And the widowed queen of Karna with the women of his house
Gave oblations to her hero, wept her loved and slaughtered spouse!