The King of the Dark Chamber

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About this book

The King of the Dark Chamber is by Rabindranath Tagore, translated into English by the author. The text opens in a street with a few wayfarers and a City Guard. The City Guard tells the wayfarers that one street is quite as good as another here and that any street will lead them there.

A citizen says that one cannot help wishing that the King had allowed himself to be seen at least this one day. A speaker named Virupaksha says, with a low voice, that the King is hideous to look at, so he has made up his mind never to show himself to his subjects. Sudarshana says that the soft strains of the vina seemed to float through all that wild din and tumult, and asks Surangama whether Surangama too heard the vina, or whether it was but a dream. The King says that it will be possible in time, my Queen, and that the utter and bleak blackness that has to-day shaken you to your soul with fear will one day be your solace and salvation.

About the author

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali poet, composer, painter, and thinker whose reshaping of literature and music left a lasting mark on the subcontinent. In 1913 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.