Venice masks

Friday 4 June 2021

A Woman to Her Lover - Annamayya

Don't you know my house,
garland in the palace of the Love God,
where flowers cast their fragrance everywhere?

Don't you know the house
hidden by tamarind trees,
in that narrow space marked by the two golden hills?

That's where you lose your senses,
where the Love God hunts without fear.

     Don't you know my house ?

Don't you know the house,
the Love God's marketplace of passions,
the dusk where the dark clears and yet is not clear?

Don't you know the house
where you live in your own heart?
That's where all affections hold court.

     Don't you know my house ?

Don't you know the house
where the garden of daturas make you go mad with love?
You should know: you're the lord of Venkata hill.

Its gates are signed by the Love God,
and you should know that's where
you heap all your wealth.

     Don't you know my house ?

Annamayya [Tallapaka Annamacharya] (1408 - 1503) India
Translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman
Source: When God Is a Customer: Telugu courtesan songs by Kṣētrayya and others, Edited and Translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman, University of California Press, 1994
Daturas - a genus of plants commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil's trumpets

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