Ayyappa Paniker Poems

Here lies the body of Mister Paniker
who at the end of his panicking days
agreed to lie still for a while.
...

The winter is humming something:
Is it for nothing?
Does she say that spring will never
Come again?
...

What happened?
To the land of Oedipus tragedy is nothing new.
Do the gods of the Olympus still thirst for war?
...

Look at the picture my hands have drawn on my walls:
why do you stare? Look carefully, you fool!
Nerves that stretch from the navel and the eyes
thirst and burn in the brain;
...

The twilight hour keeps playing on the santoori,
O honey bride of Greece, tell me now your tale of love!

Olive branches sway and swing in the breeze
That reaches here, blowing across the Mediterranean,
...

Just because I have stolen a few things
why should you call me a thief?

But you have stolen our clothes!
If i have stolen your clothes, your clothes,
...

Because I remain quiet at home,
the earth still goes on its rounds;

because I snore lying in my bed,
the solar systems shine;
...

How unpleasant are those names, and yet
their bitter strength is splendid, splendid
too the human love that lighted the seven wicks
every nightfall. Wasn't it they that reared them all?
...

When the cockroach ate the cat,
The rat sat gloomy and sad:
Who will eat me now, alas!
Is Fate too like the cockroach?
...

The dawns pause, playing on the santoori:
Tell us your tale, O tragic bride of Greece!
The Sol that wakes up from the Aegean Sea
Climbs over the peaks of Mount Olympus.
...