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HIR AND RANJHA
23
AUGUST, 1921]
And Chuchak replied: "We have employed Ranjha as Hir's servant. Had he been an evil man, we should have expelled him. The whole village stands in awe of him and all the shepherds obey him. Why have you turned such a young man as this out of your house? He is neither lame nor lazy nor clumsy fingered. We will not turn him out, but if he wishes to see his brothers no one will prevent him."
And Ranjha's brothers and their wives wrote tauntingly to Hir and said: "If you want boys to debauch we can supply you with plenty. It is a matter of amazement how much debauchery is being taught nowadays. You have robbed us of our brotherin-law whose face was like the moon. You should pick out a bigger man for your love intrigues. This boy Rânjha is too young to know what love means." Now Hir had the letter read out to her and she told the contents to Ranjha, and after consulting him, she caused the following answer to be written on her behalf.
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"Your letter has been received. We are shocked at its contents. We have employed Ranjha as a grazier of buffaloes and we will not let him go. The once plucked Bel flower cannot be reset on the branch. Broken glass cannot be united. The bones that have once been thrown in the Ganges cannot return. Past times can never come back. The contract of love once entered on cannot be broken."
And Ranjha's sisters-in-law replied to Hir: "If you wish to challenge us on the score of beauty we are ready to accept the challenge. We are all of us beautiful and all our lives we have been servants of our dear Ranjha. He is like the moon to us and we are like the Pleiades to him. He beats and abuses us but still we are his servants. You may take another slave from us in his stead and we shall be grateful. We have been sore distressed by his absence and we are like swans separated from the herd."
To this letter Hir replied as follows without the knowledge of Chuchak: "Greetings. What you ask me about Rânjha is impossible. I swear on the Koran I cannot give him up. Why are you so fond of him? His love is with me. In the assembly of the girls we sing songs about him. You are fine sisters-in-law. You are always squabbling with him. Your taunts have made him as thin as a piece of board."
To this Ranjha's sisters-in-law made reply: "He belonged to us but you stole him. You rob us of our money bags and then play the usurer over us. You come to borrow a light and then claim to be mistress of the house. The simpleton fell into your wily clutches like a blind mouse hunting for food in an empty corn bin. May the curse of the Poet Waris Shah fall upon you, Hir, for you have robbed us of our dear brother-in-law."
And Hir replied: "Did Ranjha's sisters-in-law love him so much when they turned him out of his father's house? Did not his brothers expel him for a few roods of land? He slipped away from his home in despair even as a pearl slips off a silken thread. He roams all day in thick forests and has sold his soul to this sinful personage. He refuses to go however much you exert yourselves. You can let his brothers know that we do not intend to restore him even for hundreds of thousands of rupees."
CHAPTER 15.
(Chuchak proposes to get Htr married.)
Now during all this time Chuchak was perplexed in his heart about his daughter Hir; and he called his relations and castefellows together in an assembly to consult about Hir's marriage. He was undecided whether to give her in marriage to Ranjha or elsewhere.
