Arunagiri, my Arunaikili

O’ charming, celestial evergreen bird! Of your glory and wisdom have I heard! How comfortably atop her hand you perch, As aeons for you did I singularly search! Poetic parrot! My wrongs you will amend, Inspiring devotion with stranger and friend! Bestow your grace, ye gentle spirit! Or don’t I merit to be a favourite? Innocent, honest, my feelings rife... I am gypsy too... from an earlier life! So my request please... won’t you abide? To sit on her hand with you by my side? Eloquently then, you can whisper with elan, Can we devise such an immortal plan? Will you imprint the verses on my tongue? So that HIS glory by my tribe be sung? Did the kiss of Muruga indeed bless That form and image you do possess? “Sukam,” “Thaththai,”* O’ it’s all the same, “sOham, sweet mantra” - your middle name! Come, come, communicate the message intense Of compassion, friendship and hope immense! Woes and foes in fear shall flee, With you beside, my dear AruNakiLi! When weary, wary... will I worry? Why, no siree! I have AruNagiri! *Sukam, Thaththai are names for parrot; sOham= sa:aham - advaitic mantra.

Poet’s note: While not a translation, this poem owes its origin to a Thamizh kavithai written by S Pasupathy who coined the term ‘AruNakiLi’ in his Tamil poem bearing this name, which first appeared in Amman Dharisanam (Dec. 2001) and later on in ThiNNai (http://www.thinnai.com/poems/pm0209038.html), an e-zine based in NY.

Rajeshwari Iyer
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More Poems	Published on May 31st, 2005
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