The Dream-Lover

BY TIRUVALLUVAR

(Translated from the TAMIL Kural by K. Srinivasan)

1. How shall I welcome the Dream,

The Dream that comes with the message of the Beloved?

2. If I beg my eyes and they go to sleep,

I’ll fly to my Beloved and tell him all my woe.

3. He comes not to me; still I live.

I live because I dream and dream of him.

4. Kind, kind is the dream that seeks him out for me,

Him, who comes not to me when I lie awake.

5. Sweet indeed was our meeting on that day,

Sweet too are dreams that make those joys relive.

6. If cruel waking doth not intervene,

The Beloved who came in dream would never depart.

7. Why comes he and haunts me in my dreams,

Who comes not to soothe my agony in the waking hour?

8. I dream; he comes and clings to my arms.

I wake; he runs and hides in my heart.

9. She alone complains, "He comes not to me,"

Who meets not her Beloved in her dreams.

10. "He has left her," say these village folk;

They see him not rushing to me in dream.