Am I To Sing of You?
BY THE POETESS AVVAI
(Translated from Tamil by P. N. Appuswami)
[This small poem of twelve lines is ascribed to Avvai, a poetess who is reputed to have lived in the first or the second century of the Christian era. Tradition has it that a petty chieftain desired that she should sing of him, and that he was met with this characteristic answer. Lampooned he certainly has been, but quite as certainly has he been Immortalised also.]
Am I to sing of you?
I, who have sung of the chiefest one among the deities three,
And of the three young princes of the Tamil land.
Am I to sing of you?
The gory battle-plain where warring elephants die you have not seen,
Nor ever listened with rapture to the sweet melody of the lute,
Nor ever known the caress of fair young bosoms and flower-soft lips.
You are a glutton for boiled rice: but the taste of Tamil you know not.
Your heart has never been touched by the complaints of poets in their need.
To yourself you have denied fine raiment and good food.
No gifts have you given, nor received any praise.
You are like an unclimbable tree in an impenetrable forest;
And like the bitter untastable fruit on its topmost branch is your wealth.