Page:Introduction to Tamil Poetry.pdf/14

 13 upon a person who touches the new-born calf. And he tells her "I do not mind whether your mother comes or your father comes or others come, If only you will have mercy on me I will remain unaffected. She speaks further as follows: "You do not pay heed to my words but insist on say- ing that you want me and bandy word for word with me, Unabashed, you are coming to the place where I go with the milking bowl”. In this way, the girl is supposed to have indicated the place for their secret meeting. Another girl had been in love with a teen-aged boy. They had met be but have not been married yet. She describes her dream in one of the poems (No. 128). She met him and asked why he had given her up contrary to the promise held out by him before. And he touched her and said that he would never thereafter be separated from her. She asked him with tears how he had forgotten the pleasures of her bedside and he replied, "O, how is it that you have become caged and confined like the pea-hen?” So say- ing he fell at her feet. Taking the flower garland from her head, she beat him with it as though she were beating him with a stick, and he trembled and asked “What wrong have I done to deserve this? Are’nt you a fool ? This dream she narrates to her maid and says that because she has dreamt thus, her beloved friend is sure to come back. In this hope, she says that she is alive. In another poem (No. 110) which is in the nature of a dialogue between the lover and his beloved of the forest region the similies used are significant. The girl says, “I allowed you to touch me but you want to embrace me. And you think that the woman who gives her cup of butter- milk out of charity also will give butter for the mere ask- ing? He replies "Just as the pope in the churning stick goes to and fro, my mind, despite my efforts, is in the pro- cess of going to you, returning to me and again going back to you. Just as the cow, even during day time does not