in Punjabi:
mera yaar bada jhood bolda hai
ratteen o meray kol laitya si
ik supna jeya lagda si
saccha nahin, jhooda si
main dhoka khaa k uth baithi
tay bistray nu jhappi mar leyi
sochday hoey k eh mera yaar si
kiwain dassan kitni galt gul hai
main hun ghalli-mulli haan
patli jayi hondi jaandi haan
ik pani di lily di tarhan
jinnu bhorayan nay chukk
maar k khaadaa howay
-tr. Ravi Kopra
from the English version given below:
What She Said
My lover capable of terrible lies
at night lay close to me
in a dream
that lied like truth.
I woke up, still deceived,
and caressed the bed
thinking it my lover.
It’s terrible. I grow lean
in lonliness,
like a water lilly
gnawed by a beetle.
- A.K. Ramanujana
Translated by him from Tamil poetry
in Kaccipettu Nannakaiyar (c. A.D. 50-300)