Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar Poems

Having a lover is not a shame
But having a paramour will be.
Temptation and gratification are same.
Shame forbids affairs; wives remain safe.
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Birth is unforgettable; so is death.
My birth is beyond my memory.
My death is after my memory.
Why must I mind about other events?
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This is the tomb my mother sleeps in.
I stand in front of it with compassion.
It is certain that I shall be with her.
Yet I don’t want to happen it soon.
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As a child, I would cry
To go with my mother
Whenever she went out.
As a man, I didn’t weep
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Money has power to buy a woman
And a woman has power to buy a man.
Fair skin matters and high breed matters.
Dark skin and low breed with awe see them.
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She is my mother, who is pretty old.
Her being powerless to control me
Lent me a pathetic force to prompt me
To listen to her where she wanted to.
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Don’t use your sharpness to trap others.
Don’t use your cleverness to cheat others.
Don’t use your position to prevent others.
Living in others is the intelligence.
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Important to sea-men,
Indifferent to shore-men
And binding to its service men,
Stands there a mammoth lighthouse.
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A teacher learns while he teaches.
A physician learns while treating.
They benefit more than their clients.
The world is run by the losers.
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People in cities are migrants,
Necessarily faceless, rootless.
To show their faces and hide their roots,
They appear more than they are,
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