'The Heroic Mother'

(Rendered from the Tamil by P. N. Appuswami)

[This is a favourite theme among the ancient Tamil poets. The situation and the sentiment are, no doubt, exaggerated; but the exaggeration shows the heroic ideal that inspired the poet and the people. The poem is from the thousand-year-old ‘Purap-porul-venba-malai’ of Ayyan-Aritanar, of the Royal family of the Cheras.]

This daughter of the warrior clan
Would not brook the foe invading;
But, plucking her breast from the mouth of her babe,
And straightening the strong, fiery steel,
She showed him the tombstones of his sires
And said, "Go, my son, to the fight."