Classic Poem

The Silver Planet was rising in the vast sky, and the birds
in their nests on the high branches were beginning to sing.
The ponds were opening their eyes of flowers and the moon
slowly was lessening its light. The music sounded—an ascent
of conches that spiral to the right and the roaring royal drum!
In that time when you see the night fleeing, I appeared
at the guarded camp and as the darkness was shrinking away,
I drummed on my black kinai drum with its clear-sounding eye,
and it resounded as I sang, “You on whose chest rests a garland,
of many plaits, listen to the sounds of the morning! Awaken
from your sleep!” And so I stood there at his towering gate!
And that pleased him. He said, “Here is someone who has thought of me
and come to me in his need,” and magnanimous as a shower of rain,
he poured out masses of fried meat, well seasoned and full of ghee,
and fragrant toddy that filled a jeweled vessel to the top,
and he gave me a garment with beautifully embroidered flowers,
colorful as a snake's skin, and he gave me precious gems to free me
of anguish that burned like the season of the heat. He comes
from a land where lotuses with their red petals blossoming
in a marsh shine alongside the fires kindled for the sake of
Righteousness by Brahmins who fulfil the six duties. Valavan
who wears ornaments of gold taken from those islands conquered
with his unswerving sword! Even if the end should dawn for the great sea
heaving with its waves or the sun of blazing rays appears in the sky
of the south, we will not fear and wonder what to do! He has power
to win victories with his conquering spear in hard battle!
We rest in the cool shade of his mighty feet with their handsome anklets!