my eyes saw him and my ears heard him

On beaches washed by seas 

older than the earth, 

in the groves filled with bird-cries, 

on the banks shaded by a punnai 

clustered with flowers, 

                                    when we made love 

my eyes saw him 

and my ears heard him; 

 

my arms grow beautiful 

in the coupling 

and grow lean 

as they come away. 

                                    What shall I make of this? 

 

[Venmaniputti 'What She Said to Her Girl-Friend' - Kuṟuntokai 299 - from The Interior Landscape: Classical Tamil Love Poems, trans. from the Tamil by A.K. Ramanujan]