tiruvAcagam or The Sacred Utterances of the Tamil Poet, Saint and ...

Hymn X: tiruk kOttumpi
THE HUMMING BEE
Metre : Naladittaravu koccuk kalippA
Our poet-sage, like S. Anthony of Padua, and some other mediaeval saints, had a great sympathy with the irrational
creation. This poem is addressed to the humming bee, or winged beetles, which abound in all the topes and glads of
South India, and are especially numerous in the shady groves that surround the temples;; having a great preference for
the fragrant and beautiful trees which are sacred to the Hindu deities. The insect, here called Gottumbi, is probably the
dragon-fly Ruplea Spenders. Here the SOUL is really addressed and exhorted to seek Civa's feet.
I. Mysteriously great.
The King that crowns the flower; Purandaran;
the Lady blest, in beauty clothed,
That sits on learned tongues; and NAranan;
the fourfold mystic VEdic Scroll,
The Splendours, Riders in majesty; - with all
the heavenly ones too, know Him not:-
Go to His roseate foot who mounts the Bull;
AND BREATH HIS PRAISE, THOU HUMMING-BEE ! (4)
II. I am nought, yet made like to Him
Who am I? - Wisdom's lessons what are they
that fill my mind? - and me who'd know
Had not the Lord of heaven made me His own?
He of the temple court, Who erst
A mendicant with mind distraught asked food,
in broken skull with flesh impure !
Haste to Him lotus-foot, as honey sweet;
AND BREATHE HIS PRAISE, THOU HUMMING-BEE ! (8)
III. All sweetness is in Him.
Honey from any flower sip not, though small
as tiniest grain of millest seed !
Whene'ver we think of Him, whene'er we see,
whene'er of Him our lips converse,
Then sweetest rapture's honey ever flows,
till all our frame in bliss dissolves !
To Him alone, the mystic Dancer, go;
AND BREATHE HIS PRAISE, THOU HUMMING-BEE ! (12)
IV. His love gives to loveless me.
There was no love in me like Kannappan's;
when He, my Sire, saw this, me poor
Beyond compare, in grace He made His own;
He spake, and bade me come to Him.
With heavenly grace adorned He shines, and wears
white ashes, and the golden dust !