B.Now Kala speak.
K. O Prince Siddhattha, do not go into homelessness, do not leave us. I cannot live without you. You are my comfort, my teacher, my guide. I do not follow your instructions, but I love to hear them. Oh I could not live without you. Do not go, sweet Prince. Think of your wife, your dear good lovely wife, it will break her heart. Think of your child. Do not go, noble Prince. Let somebody else become the saviour of the world. Somebody else can just as well become the deliverer and the Buddha. I am sure there are many who would like to fill that place, and somebody can do it who has a less comfortable home to leave, who has a less lovely wife, who is not heir to a kingdom, and who has not such a sweet promising little boy as you have. I cannot live without you.
B. Wouldst thou go with me?
K. [kneels]Yes my Lord, I would.
Take me along and I will cheer you up.
B. Wouldst thou go begging food from house to house?
With bowl in hand, a homeless mendicant?
K. No sir, that would not suit me.
B. Wouldst thou by night sleep under forest trees?
K. No sir, I would catch cold. That's not for me. [Rises] If you needs must go, sir, you had better go alone. That life is not for me. I will go and hear the nightingale.
Siddhattha follows the Princess into the palace.
K.
A Buddha's life
Is not for every one.
He has no wife
No pleasure and no fun.
He cannot laugh,
He cannot cry;
He cannot love
He cannot sigh.
He's always preaching, preaching.
He's always teaching, teaching.
He wonders at time's transiency
And ponders on man's misery,
And findeth his salvation
In dreary resignation.
That life I see
Is not for me:
'Twould be ill spent;
I would not find enlightenment.
I lift not the world's woe
And in my quest for truth would fail
[Muses a moment.]
So I had better go
And listen to the nightingale.
Kala Udayin exit.
[During the last scene twilight has gradually set in.]