Classic Poem

In the shade of hanging jackfruit, where no pavilion is needed
because there are dense stands of teak and bindweed in that yard,
an elephant hunter is lying fast asleep. And so a single stag
mates with the doe set out to entice him and takes his pleasure
with nothing else on his mind. Seeing the sweetness of them
joined together, the hunter's wife, afraid that the stag may run away
from the doe and fearing too that she may wake her husband, stands
motionless in her house. Cackling loudly, a partridge and a cock
of the forest peck up and swallow some handfuls of millet
drying on a deerskin. She catches them and prepares them on a fire
of sandalwood. With your large family burned black under the sun,
bard! you should blissfully consume that meat cut up for you
into pieces, fragrant with the smell of sand eels cooked along with it,
and then rest here a while before going on your way,
in this town ruled by the man who is noble and far famed,
who is so generous that every day he gives away gifts to those
who have come to him in their need, holding back
nothing of the great, limitless wealth granted to him by his king!