I salute those who passed me
Without loving me
And those who caressed my cheeks,
Dissed me.
-1-
I loved you
Loved the flowers that clung to your tresses;
The hills hills I climbed for you
It wasn’t the flocks I scoured for
In those hills.
I was searching for you.
We had concealed our love
The two of us
To what avail?
You ask;
Without sealing your tender lips
With my tremulous signature,
We moved on….
You once said that a kiss is a kiss
Only when it bites deep
To think that we did not thus seal our love
But moved on….
-2-
o beloved! You who taught me how eyes
speak the language of love
when you gaze at me
I feel as though my being is encircled
In each intense gaze
Dearest! You who held that an embrace
Brought tow bodies together to their bones
When tears rolled down my cheeks
You tasted their saltiness
Lighted a lamp of everlasting love
It was my foe
Who wound his arms around your slender neck
When he married you
-3-There we were, seated in your classroom
In the same row, you over there
The rest of the class engrossed in the lesson,
The two of us lost to the world,
Immersed in our fantasies.
The day I didn’t gaze into your longing eyes,
Triumphant in all tests
I lost you in the end.
-4-
I lost myself…
My hollow heart turned into a void
That laughter could never fill
Tears ran dry, voice turned gruff
Appearance transformed.
Suddenly, a hand that fed me
A mother’s lap
A manner, a smile that smoothed
The rough edges of my being…
A song on her quivering lips;
The song of love
‘she stepped into my life
cured me of penury, misery, hunger
with a healing spell
the sapling of love began to sprout again
when she first spoke to me…
[Translated from Telugu by Dr. Y. Satyanarayana from the volume
Sarihaddu Rekha (Nov.2002) ; poem titled : ‘Nannu Preminchinanduku’ (P.166) 
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