Ahalya
Stones.
Above the earth, beneath the earth,
hillocks and mountains,
rocks and fragments,
standing upright, fallen down,
stones.
Her husband, the sage, was a stone.
The god was a liar, but
no stone he,
only a male deity he lived
to survive the curse.
And she who had lived like stone
coming alive for that instant alone
truly became a stone.
On a day much later,
a god who crossed the seas to rescue a lover
only to thrust her
into burning flames-
who feared the town’s gossip
and exiled her-
a god, yet unworthy of touching a stone-
stumbled upon her.
Had she not changed again
Stone becoming woman
To live like a stone with a stone,
Had she remained truly a stone
she might have stood forever,
a mountain peak, undestroyed by time.
S.Sivasekaram (1980)
Translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom
