The Visions of the Night

Kural - 1211
It came and brought to me, that nightly vision rare,
A message from my love,- what feast shall I prepare?
Meaning : Where with shall I feast the dream which has brought me my dear one's messenger ?
Kural - 1212
If my dark, carp-like eye will close in sleep, as I implore,
The tale of my long-suffering life I'll tell my loved one o'er.
Meaning : If my fish-like painted eyes should, at my begging, close in sleep, I could fully relate my sufferings to my lord.
Kural - 1213
Him, who in waking hour no kindness shows,
In dreams I see; and so my lifetime goes!
Meaning : My life lasts because in my dream I behold him who does not favour me in my waking hours.
Kural - 1214
Some pleasure I enjoy when him who loves not me
In waking hours, the vision searches out and makes me see.
Meaning : There is pleasure in my dream, because in it I seek and obtain him who does not visit me in my wakefulness.
Kural - 1215
As what I then beheld in waking hour was sweet,
So pleasant dreams in hour of sleep my spirit greet.
Meaning : I saw him in my waking hours, and then it was pleasant; I see him just now in my dream, and it is (equally) pleasant.
Kural - 1216
And if there were no waking hour, my love
In dreams would never from my side remove.
Meaning : Were there no such thing as wakefulness, my beloved (who visited me) in my dream would not depart from me.
Kural - 1217
The cruel one, in waking hour, who all ungracious seems,
Why should he thus torment my soul in nightly dreams?
Meaning : The cruel one who would not favour me in my wakefulness, what right has he to torture me in my dreams?
Kural - 1218
And when I sleep he holds my form embraced;
And when I wake to fill my heart makes haste!
Meaning : When I am asleep he rests on my shoulders, (but) when I awake he hastens into my soul.
Kural - 1219
In dreams who ne'er their lover's form perceive,
For those in waking hours who show no love will grieve.
Meaning : They who have no dear ones to behold in their dreams blame him who visits me not in my waking hours.
Kural - 1220
They say, that he in waking hours has left me lone;
In dreams they surely see him not,- these people of the town;
Meaning : The women of this place say he has forsaken me in my wakefulness. I think they have not seen him visit me in my dreams.