woe,
And humbly pray her to forgive;
For so you may be spared and live."

[I omit the 28th and 29th Cantos as an unmistakeable interpolation.
Instead of advancing the story it goes back to Canto XVII, containing a
lamentation of Sita after Ravan has left her, and describes the the
auspicious signs sent to cheer her, the throbbing of her left eye, arm,
and side. The Canto is found in the Bengal recension. Gorresio translates
it. and observes: "I think that Chapter XXVIII.--The Auspicious Signs--is an
addition, a later interpolation by the Rhapsodists. It has no bond of
connexion either with what precedes or follows it, and may be struck out
not only without injury to, but positively to the advantage of the poem.
The metre in which this chapter is written differs from that which is
generally adopted in the course of the poem."]

Canto XXX. Hanuman's Deliberation.

The Vanar watched concealed: each word
Of Sita and the fiends he heard,
And in a maze of anxious thought
His quick-conceiving bosom wrought.
"At length my watchful eyes have seen,
Pursued so long, the Maithil queen,
Sought by our Vanar hosts in vain
From east to west, from main to main.
A cautious spy have I explored
The palace of the Rakhshas lord,
And thoroughly learned, concealed from sight,
The giant monarch's power and might.
And now my task must be to cheer
The royal dame who sorrows here.
For if I go, and soothe her not,
A captive in this distant spot,
She, when she finds no comfort nigh,
Will sink beneath her woes and die.
How shall my tale, if unconsoled
I leave her, be to Rama told?
How shall I answer Raghu's son,
"No message from my darling, none?"
The husband's wrath, to fury fanned,
Will scorch me lifeless where I stand,
Or if I urge my lord the king
To Lanka's isle his hosts to bring,
In vain will be his zeal, in vain
The toil, the danger, and the pain.
Yea, this occasion must I seize
That from her guard the lady frees,(846)
To win her ear with soft address
And whisper hope in dire distress.
Shall I, a puny Vanar, choose
The Sanskrit men delight to use?
If, as a man of Brahman kind,
I speak the tongue by rules refined,
The lady, yielding to her fears,
Will think 'tis Ravan's voice she hears.
I must assume my only plan--
The language of a common(847) man.
Yet, if the lady sees me nigh,
In terror she will start and cry;
And all the demon band, alarmed,
Will come with various weapons armed,
With their wild shouts the