Befriending A Foe [from 'proverbs 400' In Tamil] Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

295. Even the vulture doesn't peck at the tongue
of the dead impolite speaker. If one is
proud to spark a hooligan to kill a foe,
one is sure to eat the food at the altar.

296. The root-grass sprouts up if it gets the cool
water abound in rattling clouds. An old foe
can't be a friend again. So don't befriend
an old foe and let him take root.

297. O, chief of water-logging land with chirping
birds and ponds! Though the foes are like floods
what can they do from afar? The crafty foes
within are the loan borrowed from a near one.

298. Are the open enemies worse than the vile
close kin? The eyes which faint to distinguish
between the known and the unknown,
this and that aren't better than sightless eyes.

299. O, chief of the hills with widening falls!
Don't irritate the beaten foe to die.
It is like burying the reaped sheaves of paddy
into the ploughed wet land again to decay.

300. O, chief of the cool coast with blue flowers
and groves! E'en the summer rains make huge deluge.
No use to the great men to be more hostile
to the weak than with the mighty.