Classic Poem

If you want to know who they are, they are his daughters,
he who granted whole cities to those who had come to him in need
nor will the noble renown fade for his act of giving a chariot
for the jasmine to climb, he who owned elephants with jingling bells,
the lord of Parampu, the most high Pari! As for me, I am a friend
of their father. These girls are mine. And I am a Brahmin
and a poet and I have brought them with me! Among the generous
caste of Velirs you are the most generous, most a Velir
of the forty-nine generations of Velirs who gave gifts
without limit, who ruled distant Tuvarai with its long
walls that seemed to be formed of bronze, the city that appeared
in the sacrificial pit of a northern sage! You who reign
over victories in battle! Great king with your garlanded
elephants! Pulikatimal with your chaplet of blossoming flowers!
You know what a man should do and so you can do, for bards, what
you should do! I offer you these girls! Accept them! Lord
of the great mountain that yields gold! You whose strength
cannot be matched on the earth overarched by the sky and encircled
by the ocean, whose army puts fear into enemies
with conquering spears! O ruler of a land that can never be ruined!