I ask, doth
that Karna of sinful understanding lie today on the field, his body
pierced with shafts? Thou knowest the nature of the battle that took
place when the Srinjayas and the Kauravas encountered each other, the
battle in which I was brought to that distressful plight. Encountering
that Karna, hast thou slain him today? O Savyasaci, hast thou today, with
blazing shafts sped from gandiva, cut off from the trunk of that Karna of
wicked understanding his resplendent head decked with earrings? Pierced
with Karna's shafts today, I had, O hero, thought of thee (that thou
wouldst slay him)! Hast thou then, by the slaughter of Karna, made that
thought of mine true? In consequence of the protection granted him by
Karna, Suyodhana, filled with pride, always recked us little. Displaying
thy prowess, hast then today destroyed that refuge of Suyodhana? That
Suta's son of wicked soul, that Karna of great wrath, who had formerly,
in the presence of the Kauravas and in the midst of the assembly called
us sesame seeds without kernel, encountering that Karna in battle, hast
thou slain him today? That Suta's son of wicked soul who had, laughing
the while, commanded Duhshasana to forcibly drag Yajnasena's daughter won
in gambling by Subala's son, hath he been slain today by thee? That Karna
of little understanding who, having been counted as only half a
car-warrior during the tale of rathas and atirathas, had upbraided that
foremost of all wielders of weapons on Earth, our grandsire Bhishma, hath
he been slain by thee? Extinguish, O Phalguna, this fire in my heart that
is born of vindictiveness and is fanned by the wind of humiliation, by
telling me that thou hast slain Karna today, having encountered him in
battle! The news of Karna's slaughter is exceedingly agreeable to me.
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