Bheeshma and Karna - I

On the tenth day of the Kurukshetra war, Bheeshma, the Commander-in-chief of Kaurava army falls to the arrows of Arjuna. This is the meeting of the ever-offended Karna with the architech of the offenses, Bheeshma on the later's bed of arrows.

Part 1 describes Bheeshma's fall and Karna's visit to his bed of arrows.

The news reached him as a boulder of gloom,
That even Karna’s mettle gave way to silent quivers.
To the bride of martyrdom, stood Bheeshma the groom,
After a glorious courtship in this theatre of massacre.

Duryodhana's sorrow and visit to Karna's tent

With his heart heaved with many a sorrow,
Duryodhana fights his day in mourning,
With none from whom was solace to borrow,
He craves for the night to give him a darning.

His defences fell at Karna’s unaddressed door,
His sorrow poured like cascades over the rocks
In Karna’s palms did his unending tears, gore,

Alas, Time had just begun His ghastly mock.

(unaddressed door - at that time Karna did not have a place in the Kaurava Army; unending tears gore - Duryodhana's tears were piercing his dear friend Karna's palms; Time...ghastly mock - after Bheeshma's fall, Kauravas were to face continous defeats and losses)

Past fallen heroes and their pain-filled grouses,
Past the wrenching wails of their ashen spouses,
Past days of dishonour and shame-scared nights,
Karna walks to the bed of Kuru’s oldest knight.

(days of dishonour-shame scared nights - Karna was never honoured as a royal, he was always ashamed of his unusual birth; Kuru's oldest Knight - Bheeshma - Bheeshma was the last of Kuru dynasty, as further generations were not strictly Kuru geneology)

The aged frame visited by a thousand arrows,
But fewer than his Destiny’s unending cons,
His body bedecked by many a bloody furrow,

Bheeshma lay awaiting the call of Capricon. ..... to be contd.

(fewer ..unending cons - the thousand arrows were less painfull than the sufferings he underwent under cruel circumstances of royal life; call of capricon - Bheeshma awaited his death till the Sun's northern movement beginning from Capricon - called utharayana)