The Hunchback and the Dwarf

Kalittokai 94

Hunchback woman,
the way you move is gentle
and crooked as a reflection
in the water,
what good deeds
did you do that I should want you so?

O mother! (she swore to herself) Some
auspicious moment made you dwarf,
so tiny you're almost invisible,
you whelp born to a man-faced owl,
how dare you stop us to say
you want us? Would such midgets
ever get to touch such as us!

Lovely one,
curvaceous,
convex
as the blade of a plough,
you strike me with a love
I cannot bear.
I can live
only by your grace.

[Look at this creature!]
You dwarf, standing piece of timber,
you've yet to learn the right approach
to girls. At high noon
you come to hold
our hand and ask us to your place.
Have you had any women?

Good woman,
your waist is higher
than your head, your face a stork,
plucked and skinned,
with a dagger for a beak,
listen to me.
If I take you in the front, your hump
juts into my chest; if from the back
it'll tickle me in odd places.
So I'll not
even try it. But come close anyway and let's touch
side to side.

Chi , you're wicked. Get lost! You half-man!
As creepers hang on only to the crook of a tree
there are men who'd love to hold this hunch
of a body close, though nothing fits. Yet, you lecher,
you ask for us sideways. What's so wrong
with us, you ball, you bush of a man.
Is a gentle hunchback type far worse than a cake
of black beans?

But I've fallen for you
(he said, and went after her).
O look, my heart,
at the dallying of this hunchback!

Man, you stand
like a creepy turtle stood up by somebody,
hands flailing in your armpits.
We've told you we're not for you. Yet you hang around.
Look, he walks now like Kama.

Yes, the love-god with arrows, brother to Cama.
Look at this love-god!
Come now, let's find joy,
you in me, me in you; come, let's ask and tell
which parts we touch.

I swear by the feet of my king.
All right, O gentle-breasted one. I too will give up
mockery.
But I don't want this crowd in the palace
laughing at us, screaming when we do it,
" Hey, hey! Look at them mounting,
leaping like demon on demon! "

O shape
of unbeaten gold, let's get away from the palace
to the wild jasmine bush. Come,
let's touch close, hug hard,
and finish the unfinished:
then we'll be
like a gob of wax on a parchment
made out in a court full of wise men,
and stamped
to a seal.

Let's go.
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Author of original: 
Marutanilanakanar
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