Love
BY KILIMANGALAM-KIZHAR
(Translated from the Tamil by P. N. Appuswami)
[Note: - The lady tells her maid of her desperate condition; and criticises the stupid world, which knows nothing of love and yet condemns her.]
They, who blame me, know not love.
Even like the turtle’s blood,
Which grows by looking on the mother,
Love grows
By looking oft on the face of the beloved.
But when it is forsaken by the beloved,
Entombed in the heart,
Love pines and dies,
Like unmothered eggs.
Alas! How else could poor love end?
(KURUM-TOKAI: 152)