Translated from the Tamil to the English by P Rajani and Rajamanickam Azhagarasan
After gorging a pan full of pig’s blood

and gingili candy

our gods do savage dance,

striking fear and terror.
Like our Gods

We also don’t like that vegetarian curry.



***
Translated from the Tamil to the English by Rajamanickam Azhagarasan
Some forget the past.

But everything still keeps floating before my eyes-
The Hundi coins fixed with shells of the fish

that I caught and sold for the first time; 
The nose-ring glittered in the light of the camphor

that I bought by selling the dry fish;
The Amman’s tongue hung-out like the fish-crazy cat

that had tasted the fish kolambu in the temple;

Everything seemed like yesterday.
The last time I met you was

At the festival in the Mandaikkattamman temple

Before that clash.