Apirami Ammaip Patikam 1.9

1.9

If you are the mother who bore the moving and unmoving beings of this ocean-girt world, / are you not my mother too? Am I not your child? / Dispelling my distress, feeding me the milk / pouring from your breasts, wiping my face with the hem of your cloth, / delighting in my lisping prattle, rejoicing in your smile bright as tender moonlight, / showering a rain of grace as I frolic and play near you, / clapping your fair hands and calling, 'Come!', / if you say of me, 'He is younger brother to the Elephant-faced One and Kandan', / would there be any dishonour? / O insatiable nectar born in the surging sea! / O life of Ādi Kaṭavūr! / Śukapāṇi, who never leaves one half of Amutīcar! / Gracious Vāmī! Apirāmi!