The Flame Of Love Poem by Varanasi Ramabrahmam

My heart is the tuned array of strings on your melodious heart - the harmonious veena [1]
Delineate endearingly the tune of love, am not able to bear the silence;
Our hearts, like creepers, crawling hither thither, have entwined each other
Where is the further tightening? Am unable to imagine un-twining;

My heart used to roam ever freely, has got imprisoned in your heart, the fully blown lotus
Literary-jasmines bearing honey to the brim are used to invite me endearingly;
Mandara flowers full of science as sweet honey were repeatedly welcoming my sucking of them

Full of love for me in their dear hearts, were sending messages the different language-damsels
Who ensnared me with their curves and shapes, sounds and spelling;

Oh! So many flowers full of honey were loves to me; it is long that I blissfully drank their variety;
Leaving and ignoring all, I am tightly held by love for you
My body became lean, and my self-esteem got a knock;
I am not getting you; you became a puzzle
Why the expressed and shared love is being dissolved?

Streams gallop and jump not to reverse their flows;
The lotus blooms enchantingly, not to become bud again

The beauties of nature are properties of man; you have expressed love, why you stopped sharing?
Love castles are not made of pack of cards, why have you permitted them to be built
And are now showing indifference and unconcern causing their collapse, why?

Is it you are not aware of traits and niceties of beauties in nature?
Are you not personification of nature?

You have developed love and intimacy for me, why are you severing?
Is, loving, and sharing hearts, a kid’s play and its whims and fancies?
We own our hearts only till we express and share love with the beloved
Next moment they are fruits of our intimacy and our common wealth
Is it manners and culture to cease loving after expressing and receiving love?

You are a beautiful and youthful girl with lovely curves and shapes
Youth and its shine are brilliant on you
Like a Deity you resided in me effulgent, now are readying yourself to plunge my heart in darkness
You shared with me so much bliss, joy and aesthetic enjoyment
Do missing your nearness compensate these and match your enchanting and inviting assets?

Aesthetic enjoyment taking our forms has delighted us
Why you are now disappearing heartlessly?
Can dry heart devoid of pleasant emotion balance your enchanting presence?
And will it weigh with your beautiful and youthful desire-causing wealth?

Merging hearts, thoughts, feelings and developing
Friendship, nearness, emotional bond and intimacy,
Making one SELF dwell in our two hearts
Now leaving vacuum in my within is your specialty only;

II

The heart which used to rejoice and waves of joy plunge in it
The moment you appeared in its vicinity has now become a rock
Sensing your indifference and negligence;
The one which swirled in the whirlpool of your love
Has become serene lake

Causing sweet stirs you only initiated feelings of love in me and allowed it to grow
And thus has thrown a stone in the calm lake of my heart;
Getting pleasant and unpleasant experiences, the same my heart
Became calm, serene and peaceful
Just only because of your silent indifference in keeping distance from me

The pleasant feelings and sweet stirs caused and allowed to grow
By beautiful, youthful girls in the name of love cause joy and grief
In the same measure, and their expressions of love are transient
And change according to their whims and fancies and are
The dew drops that lose their form and coolness in the hot presence of the Sun;
This is the realization I got by your Grace

I am able to control my mind
And am able to show equanimity
Even though I see you, my dearest, in front of me;
This is your excellent help to me

We, the men are used when you get the fancy with us to pass the time
And the moment your craze subsides, are we and our hearts, like the dolls
Thrown away recklessly and unconcerned by the kids after the play is over;
This you informed me very politely, delicately and ‘lovingly’

Fickle-mindedness is the trait of many a girl
Yesterday’s love is dissolved today,
The reason behind this might be,
You do not know what you really want
Like the infants,
Or, we, the ones whose hearts are pulled and pushed
In your love and ditching, leaving us struggle in ecstasy, hurt and pain, with hope and despair,
Are children, innocent folk, or dullards who can be fooled easily and played with? ! ?
No one really knows;

I am a stick who has burnt
In the flame of love ignited by you
But still I have not burnt completely and become ash;
Do you know why?

Because I am made of pure gold
The more I am burnt purer I have become
Am shining more and more brilliantly now, by getting rid of
Impurity like attachments that entered me by the expression of false love
Good Bye! My Love!

[1] veena: A string instrument used in southern Indian, Carnatic Music