Devadasi (Ii)

A small daughter Brought you as a devadasi, Lured you And captivated you The Brahmin priests Through the middlemen, The soothsayers, astrologers, Palmists and fortune-tellers Which but the parents could not The conspiracies of theirs, The intricacies of the system. Devadasi, return, return you From where are you As the temple complex not the place Of yours, For a small girl like you, A little daughter, What ill you, What will you in the company Of the gods and goddesses Mute and speechless? The temple, the classical temple, Grand and magnificent Not the place of yours, Lonely and medieval, The rock-built temple may be it A specimen of structure, Architecture superb stupendous But not the place for you To house in, It can never be your abode. Devadasi, Devadasi, The way is long and tiresome And the return journey appears it difficult, But return, return you back to Where from have you, Lured you they from To be a devadasi Taking to be it the God's words, But never did they the gods and goddesses Ordained it, Devadasi. Devadasi, Devadsasi, you not A temple-serving maid In the service of gods and goddesses Keeping company with, You are not What they see you as, Have forecast about and prophesied Seeing the zodiac circles And hands, You are not, are not, Devadasi, Actually the priests have conspired, conspired. Devadasi, I can see, i can feel it, Your heart too beats it, Beats for, remembers you the home Where in the courtyard You used to play one day With your smaller brothers and daughters, With your brothers and daughters, Devadasi, Devadasi you, leave the temple complex And go you unsaid.