KAMASUTRA

It was the very first night,

and the young girl showed surprising skill

in the arts of love –

so much so that her husband held his head

in his hands, a little worried.

But she just laughed and painted a picture

on the wall – a lion cub,

only half-born, already leaping

at an elephant.

(By an anonymous poet, Translated from Kannada into English

by Velcheru Narayana Rao & David Shulman,

Indian Love Poems, Edited by: Meena Alexander,

Everyman’s Library, 2005, Page 79).