Iddari sanduna – Kshetragna padam in Kalyani, Misra chapu tala
From When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others edited and translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 73-74.
Who was that woman sleeping
in the space between you and me?
Muvva Gopala, you sly one:
I heard her bangles jingle.
As I would kiss you now and then,
I took her lips into mine,
The lips of the woman fragrant as camphor.
You must have kissed her long.
But when I tasted them,
they were insipid,
as the chewed out fiber,
of sugar cane.
Thinking it was you, I reached out for a hug.
Those big breasts collided with mine.
That seemed a little strange,
but I didn’t make a fuss
lest I hurt you, lord,
and I turned aside.
You made love to me first,
and then was it her turn?
Does she come here every day?
Muvva Gopala,
you who fathered the god of desire,
you can’t be trusted.
I know your tricks now
and the truth of your heart.
Who was that woman?