Discouraged by previous misunderstandings (see v.120 above), when her friend tells her that her lover has come, she is no longer sure whether it is true or not. She said to her friend:
Well, if it's true, bless you, my friend.
Like a male black-faced monkey
who looks as if he's wearing face paint,
crashing through the forest
grabbing wildly at the branches
because he can't tell which
can support his weight,
my lover too is prone to mistakes –
and his failure to bring us to together
is the reason why my wide shoulders
have grown thin and weak.
(121)
She said:
On the deep waters
(122)
Her lover has arrived but is hiding in order to see how much his failure to arrive is affecting her. Aware of his presence, her friend turns the tables on him by pretending to see the returning fishing fleet - an event which would make their meeting impossible. Her friend said:
That grove of flowering punnai trees
(123)
Her friend speaks to her lover who, fearing his beloved will suffer if she goes with him, forbids her to go. Her friend said:
You say she will suffer
(124)
She said:
Bless you, my friend,
(125)
She said:
The rainy season, cool and fragrant,
(126)
Her friend said:
Lord of the land
(127)
He said:
Like a stork,
(128)
He said to his companion:
Hear me, my friend,
(129)
Her friend said:
Well, he couldn't have burrowed
(130)
He said:
The village where she lives,
(131)
He said:
Swift to the embrace,
(132)
Like a millet field, destroyed by parrots, she has lost everything, except a lingering hope that he will return to her. She said:
Like a hill farmer's little field
(133)
She said:
Listen, my friend
(134)
Her friend consoles her; though deeds are life to men, he is life to you, and could not deprive you of it by leaving. Her friend said:
Deeds are the life-blood of man, they say.
(135)
He said to his companion:
'Beware of love,' men say.
(136)
Though he has to leave her, he swears that it will not be forever. He said:
Sweet-natured girl,
(137)
Her friend explains to her lover that, if they failed to hear his secret signal the night before, it was no fault of theirs. Her friend said:
This whole great town may have slept
(138)
Her friend refuses the lover access to his beloved. 'If your are seen, your unfaithfulness will bring dishonour on us,' she says
May you fare well
blossoms of water lilies
have closed up
looking like the hunched backs
of yellow-legged herons.
Eventide is upon us,
bless it, my friend,
and it hasn't come alone -
Oh no, the blackness of night
follows in its wake.
with their black branches,
where the deep shadows
like night distilled
are moist and cool
and where on one side
like heaped up moonlight
stands a bank of white sand
is quite empty
for he has not yet come.
But something is coming -
the boats of our kinsmen
with their rich harvest of fish.
in that vast wilderness
which salt makers
band together to cross,
through great stands
of omai trees
like ruined villages.
But how sweet to her, my Lord
will it be to remain here
in the house of her family?
with my shiny bangles
growing loose and slipping down
how can I go on
when my womanly virtue
once glorious like a festival day
which mountain girls
with grass skirts brushing their thighs
eagerly await,
has left with my lover -
from the fair cool shores
where a stork, old and weak,
no longer able to fly
clings in fear to a bending branch
as it rises and falls with the waves -
and gone to another place.
is here
nurturing with its rain
the jasmine's flowering vines
and turning its clustered buds
into ranks of shining teeth,
to mock me and laugh, my friend
saying,
‘Not seeing your youthful beauty,
desiring only riches
he went away
and has not returned even now;
where can he be?'
of fertile plains, of gardens
and groves of kanci trees,
where a carp dives
as a swan lunges
and surfacing nearby
is startled
by the beautiful white bud
of a water lily!
Your messenger, proving false
has made cheats
of all messengers everywhere
to her whom you abandoned.
upon the southern ocean's swell,
missing some feathers,
straining its neck at tiny minnows,
elusive prey indeed,
in the seaways of Tondi,
seat of the Ceran King
with his powerful chariots,
you dream of a lady
far away and hard to win,
and you suffer, my heart
as you are fated to suffer.
you whose love
brings joy to little ones,
you who are the companion
of learned men!
Like the silvery new moon,
eight days old,
rising over a dark ocean,
her small clear brow
framed by her tresses
has roped and tied me
like a jungle elephant,
newly trapped.
into the earth
nor flown off into the heavens
nor walked on foot
across the dividing ocean's threefold waters.
If we went from country to country,
to each village in each country,
and from house to house
within each village,
and asked,
is there any way he could stay missing,
our lover?
with her fine well-fleshed arms,
like bamboo's swaying wands,
and eyes well suited to love's battles,
lies far distant, my heart
in lands arduous to cross.
Like a farmer with a single ox,
when the moist land
is ready for the plough,
your eagerness knows no bounds
and causes me great pain.
her beauty kindling desire,
with her soft shapely breasts
and long trailing tresses,
how could I bring myself
to forget her?
Like a young calf
raising its trembling head,
looking longingly for its mother,
who has wandered off -
a fine cow with free-flowing milk -
her beguiling gaze
betrays
that dusky maiden's desire.
of small-eared millet
when the parrots
have pecked off
the precious golden ears
leaving only a short stubble
which, drenched by the heavy rains,
sends outs new green shoots,
all my strength is gone
and I barely live, my friend,
thanks to my lover
who enjoyed my maidenhood
and left me to my loneliness.
if it brings with it no separation
that's well - otherwise not,
this union of love
with my lover
from the land of mountains
lying range upon range
where torrents rush
down the mountainside
like snakes slithering to ground,
crashing into boulders
and tearing at the tall stout trunks
of the venkai trees
which grow among the rocks,
leaving their swaying
blossom-laden branches
empty.
But has he not already told us
that he is life itself
to the clear-browed maiden
who lives in this house.
So don't cry, my dear.
He won't go through with his plans
to leave.
It is not an external affliction,
nor is it a disease of the body;
it is not something that,
starting small,
rises to an agonising peak
and then eases off again.
Just as an elephant
on eating a certain weed
is driven into a frenzy,
it wells up suddenly
whenever it espies
the object of its affection.
if I abandon you
with no thought of returning,
leaving your good heart
lonely and sad,
may those days be few
as I live out my life
that no mendicant comes
to beg alms at my door.
but we didn't - we even heard
quite clearly, from over there
on the other side of the milk tree,
from that agnus castus -
with its pretty slender branches
leaves like peacocks' claws
and dark clustered flowers -
the rustle of a single sapphire blossom
as it fell.
but do not come down our street
bringing with you the distasteful sound
of gossip-mongering
like the squawk
of a short-legged mate
of a domestic cockerel,
when as evening falls,
unable to find a place of safety,
she calls out to her terrified brood
to gather them all together,
fearing the packs of wildcats
who lurk in the hedgerows.