Classic Poem

You are ruler over the Kaviri River with its cool waters! And that man
is a bull born of the great lineage of the Pandyas and because his ancestors
have now all vanished, he is the support that never weakens of his ancient clan
with its noble reputation, as a root might hang down from a banyan tree
and sustain an overarching limb that offers dense shade so that, without flowering,
fruit still burgeons, though its main trunk has died! And he, though young,
is a bull among the war-wise Pandyas. Like the white lightning that is irresistible
when it strikes at the snakes and their children, he will not bear his enemies! And you
are the lord of the city of Urantai, which is an abode of Righteousness. He is
the king of Madurai which is famous for Tamil, where he rules with his cooling
rod of office; and presiding there he commands the three royal drums that possess
their resounding voices, in that city which draws sandalwood from the mountains
and pearls from the ocean waves, since for him the wealth that comes from paddy
and water is commonplace, available to any and all! As if the god who carries
a palmyra palm on his banner and whose skin is as white as milk and the one
who wields the discus, the dark-colored god, those two great beings
were to stand together, so do you two seem, shining such that you spread
terror with your fearsome forms! Could there be anything sweeter, since you
two lords are as you are! Listen to me as I go on! May your glory grow and may
it last long! May your aid, each to each, the one supporting the other,
be reciprocal! And if neither the one nor the other proves false to your alliance,
then men will have spoken the truth when they say that you will win this wide
and flourishing world circled around by the sea with its roaring waves!
And so, paying attention to what is of benefit and paying attention to what
is right, and paying attention to the paths on which your ancestors traveled,
may this your unity continue as it is today, with your hearts filled with love
while you pay no attention to the vulgar words of those strangers who may
attempt to force themselves between you! In victory following after victory,
may your spears be brandished upon the field where men kill! And in the lands
of others, where there are mountains rising, may the summits be incised
with the sign of the tiger showing the curving
of its stripes and with the sign of the carp who rises from the deep waters!