Bitef

znaju da je Kama Kuntin sin i da je svoju odanost Duryodhani pretpostavio porodidnim obavezama. Yudhishthira tada odluduje da se odřekne okrvavljenog prestola i povude u šumu. Draupadi ga nagovara da ostane. Bhisma mu se obrada i pokazuje mu kako i usred najvede nesrede dovek môže da zardži makar i slabašnu nadu i ukus meda. Bhisma tada umire jerje nastupio njegov das. Gandhari proklinje Krishnu, koga smatra odgovornim za sve što ih je snašlo. Krishna mimo prihvata kletvu, i govori Gandhari da je jedno svetlo spaseno dak i ako ga ona ne vidi. Yudhishthira pristajeda vlada. Sada je na Krishnu red da umře i on umire vrlo mimo, übíjen greškom u šumi. Před smrt ima vremena da spase dete u utrobi mlade udovice Abhimanyuove, Njegov potomak je dete kome se pripoveda veliká prida. Prošlo je tridesetšest godina. Slepi kralj, Gandhari i Kunti stoje na obali reke. Govore o prošlosti, o nezaboravnom ratu, Kralj nareduje svojoj ženi da skine povez sa odiju, samo jedanput, pre nego što umře. Ona mu

odgovara da ga je skinula, ali, verna svojoj zakletvi, to ipak ne čini. Tada sve troje krédu ka vatri koja je izbila u šumi. Ostareli Yudhishthira stiže u raj, přaden psom. Njegova brada i Draupadi, koja je napustila zemlju zajedno sa njim, páli su u ponor. Čuvar kapije mu káže da ostavi psa napolju ako želi da uđe u raj. Yudhishthira odbíja, ali ipak ulazi jer je zahtev bio samo iskušenje. U raju, tom nezamislivompredelu još uvek ga odekuju neka iznenadenja. Tu su mu neprijatelji, nasmešeni i sredni, S druge strane, izgleda da mu brada i Draupadi trpe muke. Zašto? Yudhishthira postavlja sebi ta poslednja pitanja pre nego što, najzad, prihvati mir, přiznavši sebi da je sve iluzija. □

The Mahabharata Peter Brook is acclaimed as the greatest theatre director of modem times. Over the past thirty years he has had a revolutionary impact on European theatre, while constantly testing and changing his own ideas on his art. His book, The Empty Space has been solidly in print for twenty years. Over the past eight years Brook has been working on the culminating achievement of his illustrious career, The Mahabharata, a theatre epic based on the very roots of India’s mythology, religion, history and thought, which has a spiritual import akin to The Bible, a literary veitality comparable to The Iliad and a story-telling power as enchanting as The

Arabian Nights. It is a treatise on war, power and morality. The central story tells of a protracted struggle between two wings of a royal family the Pandavas an the Kauravas - and the main storyline is interwoven with many sub-plots, some comic, some tragic. The work is little-known in the West, but Brook was drawn to it because of the vitality of the story it tells, and also because it permitted a voyage into a fascinating civilisation in which contemporary audiences could see reflected their own concerns, emotions, contradictions and secret dreams. He says of it: All the questions we are living through today are dramatised by this work. The fact that it was conceived almost three thousand years ago doesn't make it remote. On the contrary, by the simple process of distance, it enables the basic issues to come through all the more clearly. Though the source of Brook’s inspiration is Indian his creation never pretends to be authentic: We could never recreate a three-thousand-yearold India, or the eternal symbols of the Hindu religion, but we suggest