Red Flowers

(Translated by P. N. Appuswami from the original poem in Tamil)

[The lover, who comes courting a maid, offers her red flowers as a gift. But the maid rejects them thus, disdainfully, for they abound in her own land. The poem is, in its form, in praise of Muruga, one of the popular gods of the Tamil country. He fought and slew the demons, so that he might save the gods. The modern reader will be reminded of the battle-field of Flanders, and its profusion of red poppy flowers.]

Red is the battle-field with the blood of the demons he slew;
Red are the shafts of his arrows which annihilated them;
Red with blood are his elephants’ tusks;
Red is he himself, wearing warrior-anklets on his feet;
And blood-red are the glory-lilies clustering on his hill.