Songs Of Love: Painting Of A Keralaite Lady In Traditional Dress Playing Veena, By Ravi Varma Poem by Raj Arumugam

this moment, sweet love mine,
this moment is painful
each beat is;
music gives no respite
no raga any calm
for absence claws at the heart:
come then swiftly
not a second later but now



1

where are you
at this moment as my heart
yearns for your presence?
the promised hour is gone
words are become faint
and your touch has become
a memory
and the pleasure that suffused the mind
is now become a pain;
come swiftly, love, for yearning is anguish
that music intensifies but not lessen
O you, who pervades my mind
like light in a garden -
where are you
at this moment, as my heart
yearns for your presence?



2

when we walked
I’ve known the gentleness of
your palm folded over mine
your thumb sliding under my bangles:
oh always so gentle,
always so gentle,
as a lullaby, a lullaby
O sweet love,
love is not just souls merging.
not just meeting of souls – no, it’s not
for love is touch too,
for love is fingers, flesh
and teeth and bones too:
so come here swiftly,
swiftly now for I desire that
your palm folds over mine
your thumb slides under my bangles





3

liar you are, you who fill
my heart with desires
and expectations;
liar you are who says
you cannot live even a second without me:
and where are you now as I live in pain?
O love of my life, you so full of lies –
and yet, no – not a liar, but just
perhaps a bad love poet
one who exaggerates
filled with outdated conventions
and does not speak modern poetry…
O love of my life, you so full of hyperbole:
come swiftly love, for each second without you
each second without you I die…





this moment, sweet love mine,
this moment is painful
each beat is;
music gives no respite
no raga any calm
for absence claws at the heart:
come then swiftly
not a second later but now