The Visions of the Night - The Post-marital love - LOVE - Tirukkural

1211
It came and brought to me, that nightly vision rare,
A message from my love,- what feast shall I prepare?
Where with shall I feast the dream which has brought me my dear one's messenger ?

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.
If my fish-like painted eyes should, at my begging, close in sleep, I could fully relate my sufferings to my lord.

1213
Him, who in waking hour no kindness shows,
In dreams I see; and so my lifetime goes!
My life lasts because in my dream I behold him who does not favour me in my waking hours.

1214
Some pleasure I enjoy when him who loves not me
In waking hours, the vision searches out and makes me see.
There is pleasure in my dream, because in it I seek and obtain him who does not visit me in my wakefulness.

1215
As what I then beheld in waking hour was sweet,
So pleasant dreams in hour of sleep my spirit greet.
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.

1216
And if there were no waking hour, my love
In dreams would never from my side remove.
Were there no such thing as wakefulness, my beloved (who visited me) in my dream would not depart from me.

1217
The cruel one, in waking hour, who all ungracious seems,
Why should he thus torment my soul in nightly dreams?
The cruel one who would not favour me in my wakefulness, what right has he to torture me in my dreams?

1218
And when I sleep he holds my form embraced;
And when I wake to fill my heart makes haste!
When I am asleep he rests on my shoulders, (but) when I awake he hastens into my soul.

1219
In dreams who ne'er their lover's form perceive,
For those in waking hours who show no love will grieve.
They who have no dear ones to behold in their dreams blame him who visits me not in my waking hours.

1220
They say, that he in waking hours has left me lone;
In dreams they surely see him not,- these people of the town;
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.