Today's Beautiful Gem: `Offering' by Kannadasan translated by Krishna Srinivas

"My Lord: Lord of Lords:
"I stand aflame, ablaze
gazing your sculptured grace / endless epics of fire
everests of chiselled worlds / spiralling to pyramidal peaks--
aeons breeding firmaments / and million billion trillion galaxies.
"Glossy rind
plumes frozen fires / and envelops all wrestles of urge
and aches of bones / and clash of fevered flesh.
"O Fount of Light!
You wave each to each / cementing broken breach.
"O primordial spark!
from stone we pilgrimage to turbulence--
haunting past / pilloring present / daggering future.
"I paint to hit
at heart of stone / that etched you and me / and all universe
and dare to illumine / all dark and cancered men.
"and stay within within
and see you sewn to all the hewn.
"Light of Lights!
flooding foam of endless seas / and boundless galaxies...
"Life stream snakes to sea:
I stand on bank and reverie / and hold you shrined in me
I jewel your feet / with floral treat."

Note: The songs of Kannadasan, poet laureate of Tamil Nadu,
are sung by millions all over the world. To conserve space,
lines are separated by slashes. May I request our Tamil friends
to post more songs of this lyrical poet of the modern time?

Om Saantih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

<:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:>153<:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:>