by Nammalwar
49
She Said:
O girl with lustrous brow
O girl equal to the earth that he
Madhusūdanan Dāmodaran
great lord
whose tulasī garlands dark bees feed on
eats spits out protects
Listen:
I’ve encountered this swollen night before
but I’ve neither seen nor heard nor known
a night that spreads like this.
50
He Said:
O skilled charioteer, drive quickly
Take me to her of the lustrous brow
before her colour fades
Take me to the great mountain
where waterfalls crash on the foothills
like strings of pearls from the tall crown of
Vaikuṇṭha’s master,
one sweet as nectar.
51
She Said:
The ocean churned by the elusive lord
with a mountain as rod snake as rope
relented its nectar did not demand its return
Yet with fragrant tulasī as companion
it comes to torment me
to claim as its hereditary wealth
these conch bangles I bought from fisherfolk.
52
Her Friend Said:
When that woman born from the lotus
her eyes cool as rain rose
from the white waves of the roaring dark sea
climbed on to his serpent bed
the maiden of the earth lamented loudly in the sky
her tears poured as rivers
flowing down her breasts, these mountains,
She cried ‘Tirumāl is cruel.’
53
The Fortune Teller Said:
This girl whose breasts are covered by cloth
has the divine disease
inflicted by the virtue
of the master of the gods.
Bring a garland of divine cool lovely tulasī
or even its leaves its stalk its roots
or just earth on which it grows
place it on her.
54
She Said:
O you with tiny feet and fluttering wings
it’s easy for you to reach the city in the sky
tell me before you leave:
What will you say when you arrive?
Unite me
with the flawless flower-like feet
of the one who stole butter was scolded
for many such things
The king of gods is my lord, O bees.
55
He Said:
O bees, come here. I’ve something to ask you
You wander about drunk on honey
from flowers in water in trees in earth.
In all the wide places you wander
are there honey-drenched flowers
equal to the fragrance of the hair
of her equal to Vaikuṇṭha
that place of the lord
who rolled in the dust as a pig?
56
She Said:
Beautiful friend don’t be afraid
we survived because of the grace
of the lord who swallowed this wide world
a breeze cool as a rain cloud
came bearing the sweet fragrance of lovely tulasī
it caressed my senses my jewels
but no one else knows.
57
He Said:
Her earrings entrance the senses.
In her lotus-like face her dark eyes dart like keṇṭai
whose war is blocked by a gently curving creeper
such eyes: wide and sharp as spears.
No one can mock me. Those eyes
bewilder me
I am like the ocean with its crashing waves
giving up its nectar
when Kaṇṇan churned it with his mountain.
58
She Said:
One stride covered the earth
the next filled the sky
casting everything in its shade
Kaṇṇan
who roams this vast world
a fiery light of ripe wisdom
higher than all beings
a lotus blossoming in a swamp
what is he going to measure here?
59
Her Mother Said:
‘My love for his lovely cool tulasī
is longer greater deeper
than the endless terrible lovely ocean-like night.
He is Madhusūdanan, master of wide fertile lands
bound by the ocean.’
It’s my terrible fate
that she with a smile bright as jasmine buds
her red lips and broad breasts
should say such things
and I should hear them.
60
Her Mother Said:
Her breasts are still tender
Her dense fragrant hair is still short
She’s half dressed most of the time
She babbles like a child
the oceans the earth are no price
for her darting bright eyes
Is it right for such a girl
to repeat what she’s simply learned:
‘Tiruvēṅkaṭam is the mountain!’
61
She Said:
Is it possible to speak
of the master of the ancient gods
of the one worshipped by all the gods
of him who in two strides
spanned the entire world
and not a blade of grass was spared
of the one born among cowherds?
He is our lord.
62
Her Mother Said:
O despite our pleas
the pitch-black ocean boasts ‘Victory!’
It has no compassion for this one girl
Nothing but your grace can guard her modesty
there is no other protection.
O lord dark as rain clouds
one who reclines on the serpent
O tell me is this right?
63
She Said:
Are these those same eyes
cool gentle lotus, red and radiant,
a glance that comforts immortals in the sky?
I adore the beautiful face
of Kaṇṇan Tirumāl
who inhabits my thoughts abides in me
his servant in this very moment.
64
She Said:
The masters of the earth cleave
to the weighty words of the Ṛg Veda
to praise faultlessly
the feet that spanned the worlds
I depressed subdued by fate
simply recite sacred names I’ve learned
like one who can’t eat ripe fruit
and makes do with raw ones.
65
He Said:
Her eyes soft and gentle as a young doe’s
defeat all others
Her eyes dart to their edges
as if to whisper secrets in her ear
Her bright eyes that may or may not have seen
the feet of the lord
who swallowed spat out worlds
devour me.
66
He Said:
These eyes entrance even yogis
who immersed in thought
neither eat nor sleep.
She is equal to Vaikuṇṭha
of the great lord who is fire water ether sky earth.
My fate may be terrible
but her eyes flower-red are my life.
67
He Said:
They vanquished red flowers dark flowers
spears kayal so many other things
and now her eyes desire my life.
She is like a lushly feathered bird
that lives in Vēṅkaṭam
land of Govindan Mādhavan
who destroyed demons
that one who rides the great bird.
68
Her Friend Said:
O girl like Vaikuṇṭha
of the great lord
who spanned this world surrounded by
swirling oceans
the lovely konrai begin to bud
awaiting your lover’s return
they haven’t yet bloomed
into dense garlands of gold
that hang from a thick canopy of leaves.
69
The Friend Said:
The dark bull-like night lost to the fiery red morning
now it has returned desiring victory:
this brief lowly evening
O girl whose tender breasts are bound in cloth
don’t despair for your bangles
Won’t the tall lord who sealed a pact
and measured worlds
give you grace?
70
She Said:
I desired the dense fragrant garland
of cool lovely tulasī adorning the crown
of our lord of the heavens
who holds the beautiful curved disc
my lustre turned to paleness
when it came swiftly
stretching into days months years aeons
and now it’s here to torture me
the night now a thousand aeons.
71
She Said:
I didn’t say ‘He became the end of days and
swallowed the seven worlds.’
I saw a dark fruit
observed ‘It’s the colour of the sea.’
My mother then said ‘What impertinence!’
‘She speaks of the colour of the one who
swallowed worlds.’
Speak to her dear friend. My mother scolds me.
72
She Said:
The lovely young moon that tears
the unshrinking dense darkness
of this endless swirling night
tears me too. It strengthens
I am alone
my heart fixed on the garland of tulasī.
Is this any way to live
waiting for my lustre to return?
73
Her Mother Said:
Like a white cow in the sky
the white moon spills its bright white moonlight
to delight the world,
evening ripens.
Is it right that the one who protects the seven worlds
lord who holds the fiery disc
that glows like the sun
allows this lonely girl to suffer so?
74
Her Friend Said:
His long eyes closed, he slumbers
upon his bed resting
on rolling rising ocean waves
When he comes awake
he swallows worlds
A fresh gentle breeze wafts
having devoured the fragrance of tulasī
adorning the crown of that same one
who uprooted the great mountain
turned it on its head.
75
He Said:
O your bright faces slay me
with their arrow-sharp eyes that dart like keṇṭai
and brows that curve like fearsome bows
Are you from Vaikuṇṭha where his devotees abide
that place where the lord reclines
on the sea with its lovely waves
that push rounded conch shells to shore?
Or are you from this earth?
76
She Said:
My innocent heart desires
the buds of cool lovely tulasī that adorn
the one who spread everywhere
measured this world.
Is it a surprise the white moon
closes the broad petals of the lovely lotus
makes the delicate āmpal bloom
spreads like poison everywhere
wanting my white bangles?
77
She Said:
The beautiful young moon wails
when the sun falls on the crimson battlefield.
The lowly evening arrives with the tulasī
of the master of the gods
who made Laṅka a terrible battlefield
as a companion
to steal my beauty to torment me.
78
She Said:
He vanquished evil Naraka
He cut down Bāṇa’s strong shoulders
I am unfit to speak of his courage his greatness
My innocent heart frantic
for the garland of lovely tulasī that adorns
the lord whose radiant form is like a dark mountain
brings me such suffering.
79
She Said:
He is the Veda. Adorned with a bright white thread
praised by the gods as their master
the one without end who swallowed worlds
whose feet measured worlds
who reclines on the serpent on the ocean of milk
He gives us grace
those who worship that gentle one are greater
than those who live in the sky.
80
She Said:
The sun has died
his reign brief as of a noble mortal king.
O king who measured the earth
O king of countless names
my king who rules the sky
O king who abandoned me with such cunning
give me grace
night has come to torment me.
81
Her Friend Said:
When they don’t consider changes in her
can we say that these are her mothers
or this one gave birth to her?
They don’t adorn her hair with tulasī
nor take her to ancient Vēṅkaṭam
to gain some relief.
Her body falls apart her gentle soul burns.
82
She Said:
My lord’s eyes are like two fiery red suns
rising above the mountains of Udayagiri.
I am like demons who cast themselves
into the red fire that burns.
Tell me is this a measure
of his caring protection of the world?
83
Her Mother Said:
In the courtyard she saw the nest of twigs in the
palm tree
thought of the anril’s delicate call for its mate
then madly repeated the names
of the lord dark as rain clouds.
I don’t know how my beautiful girl can survive
her fragile life ebbs her body is listless
Will it only end with her death?
84
She Said:
A midst a throng of lovely women
or surrounded by crowds of virtuous priests
in some festival or in places like that
I long to see you
holding in your hands golden disc and white conch
O one dark as kohl my precious gem
pearl of mine my glittering ruby.
85
She Said:
Like a monkey tossing aside a ruby
evening falls
casting aside the golden sun.
O precious gem who measured worlds
my beloved emerald
golden one who has no equal
you’re the sole refuge of your servant’s life.
86
She Said:
You rid Aran cursed
to eat from a stinking skull
carved from Ayan’s head,
the lotus-born one, you are his refuge
You who hold aloft disc and conch as weapons
stole butter then cried
when the cowherd woman bound you with ropes.
My lord what’s left to say in my lament?
87
The Mother Said:
In a heavy full-throated voice the anril laments
In a loud voice waves crash into beautiful
salt marshes
hearing this
she praised the virtues of your brave bird
Now the world gossips
saying ‘This is wrong’
O Tirumāl such is the fate of our precious girl.
88
She Said:
The great Meru is like Tirumlā
the red sun rising above that beautiful mountain
Tirumāl’s hand holding the auspicious disc
When we see all that is like him
when we see his emblems his form
we stand entranced.
How can evil fate touch us
who worship Tirumāl?
89
She Said:
Poison to evil fate sweetest nectar to virtue
beloved of the goddess whose seat is a lotus
strapping cowherd who grazed his cows
thinking nothing of it
that day measured worlds
with his two feet
bull-like lord my master
when will we be united?
90
She Said:
I edged close to you
my desire to bear your feet on my head
a protection against this body
what a wonder is this body
I received as a reward for my many vows.
O my lord who destroyed the clan of demons
when I think on this
even the ancient aeon shrinks.
91
She Said:
The cunning one ate butter stored in pots
then swallowed the entire world whole
what a large belly he has
As a great dwarf he made a pact with Mahābali
for three steps of land
this servant’s heart desires none
but the great wily lord.
92
She Said:
The gods begged you to raze
the wicked demon’s great city
surrounded by wide ocean
They worship your feet that touched this earth
but do they think night and day
on at least one of your many forms?
93
She Said:
The night fled the sun in the morning
the sun dies the night returns
the wicked evening spreads everywhere
Even seeing this no one
bathes in the morning in the pond of knowledge
their bud-like eyes closed or open
they don’t sing praises of Māl
they don’t think of his dark body.
94
Virtuous Vedic seers
are blessed to be adorned by
your dark body your red lotus eyes your feet.
Like a blind cow mimicking the lowing herd
so it can return to the city
I repeat some words.
What else can this servant say?
95
She Said:
The soul enters a body
bound there then released
it falters in all its previous lives.
I want to be rid of this attachment
I worship Tirumāl
who is mother and father
the one who can grant me release.