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Poetry

She

By Prema Revathi
Translated from Tamil by A. Mangai

The single kiss
That made the worlds freeze
With bated breath, tasting of a tear’s salt
Is all hers.
 
Love sowed its blue stars
On our private night
Covered by a phallic sky.
The blood-river that flowed once the body opened
Wet the sky through.
Wearing pieces of moon,
Invisible in light on our bodies,
We left for our habitual nests
In the final seconds of darkness . . .
 
Peals of laughter
Lie scattered on my bedspread
This early dawn.
 
What is the bright light,
that your body exudes at night?
—ecstatically, asks he.

English

The single kiss
That made the worlds freeze
With bated breath, tasting of a tear’s salt
Is all hers.
 
Love sowed its blue stars
On our private night
Covered by a phallic sky.
The blood-river that flowed once the body opened
Wet the sky through.
Wearing pieces of moon,
Invisible in light on our bodies,
We left for our habitual nests
In the final seconds of darkness . . .
 
Peals of laughter
Lie scattered on my bedspread
This early dawn.
 
What is the bright light,
that your body exudes at night?
—ecstatically, asks he.

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