The Emptiness [ From 'naaladiyaar'] Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

281.Though they are clad in saffron-robe ‘round the waist,
they will be honoured if they have some cash.
They may be high-born; if their hands are bare
they will be treated as lower than the dead.

282. Oil is finer than water but you know well
smoke is subtler than the oil. Thinking deep,
you see that one who is writhing in penury
will pierce even through the slit to beg.

283. O, Slinger of the dry tracts to scare
the parrots pecking at corns of millet.
The beetles swarm not at hills if lilies
aren't there! No one seeks a pauper.

284. When he has wealth, some nine thousand people
throng ‘round him to help like the crows on a corpse.
When he roams like the beetle for food in want
no one in this world enquires of his health.

285. O, Lord of the tribes in hills where the cascades
clean the rocks! When want embraces the people
eminence of their lineage goes! Valour ruins!
The highest of them all, their learning too falls!

286. Why should he be in his born place spending time
idly, if he helps not those who approach him
for succor, even in his biting hunger?
Be a guest to his friend in town and eat there.

287. O, you sharp-teethed to hurt e'en the jasmine buds!
Those who are in the grip of poverty
not only lose their good qualities
but the highly grown intelligence too.

288. Being thrashed with poverty, you help not those
begging, have empty hands and make hard efforts
to thrive in native town. Better leave your place
and stretch hand at each home in a distant town.

289. Those who lose their handy cash and fall in want,
eat the tasteless food to drive out hunger;
when their bangles wearing wives pluck the greens,
cook saltless and serve it in the leaves of palms.

290. O, Chief of the hill-tracts with unfailing falls!
The thickly spotted beetles don't seek the twigs
without flowers! There is no kin to those
who do not strive to make wealth.