Lament of Chandramatī

(This a loose translation of சந்திரமதி புலம்பல், a Tamil poem featuring King Hariśchandra’s wife, Chandramatī’s lament over the death of her son.)

Scorched by the sun, bitten by frost,

Parched with thirst, after a kingdom lost.

Is it fate that is set out to be cruel,

Or, did my sins past deny us of gruel?

I had gone to beg, beseech or borrow,

And I return empty to a lifetime of sorrow. 

Was it that I gave you up to the reaper,

Or, did fate sound the knell as a viper?

As king, your father ruled as per scripture,

His ministers faced not any stricture.

We treated our vanquished with honour,

And none in our land was a slave or owner. 

What had we done to fall from grace?

To a fate we wish not even our foes face. 

Driven to penury, and riven in misery,

Is your calm the last of fate’s vagary?

I pray unto all the deities that we revered,

Can you not unite what has been severed?

A wish, if I were to ask and you to give,

Take not the offspring when the genitors live.