The sweaty hug

Kurunthogai:12

In this piece of poem a foster mother has a funny complaint to make on the girl
she had had brought up. Some time time back the girl used to like her hugging,
finding a touching sign of love in those hugs. As the girl had become matured now,
exposed to a different kind of embrace whic was more endearing after meeting her
lover. Unaware of it the foster mother goes to hug her dear child. Then comes the
hurting reply.
‘You are sweating.’
The poet to add more effect refers the passing clouds of Podhigai hills which
carry on the scents of Vengai and Kaandhal flowers . A trace of jealousy found in
a mother’s heart is subtly hinted here.

I went to hug her,

My foster daughter
Who smells with the perfumes of
The Vengai and Kaandhal flowers
But tender and chillier than the Aambal
Of the clouds passing Podhigai
Belonged to the braceleted Aai (the munificent);
But she resisted,
Saying ‘I am sweating’
Then I understood
Her dislike for my embrace!

Mosi keeranaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 9:30 PM 0 comments
Labels: Embrace
Monday, May 14, 2007
Jumbing horse and bumbing bamboo
The Unfastened horse and unhitched bamboo

Kurunthogai:11

She had become thinner with the thoughts of him. The news reaches her that he the
Hillman lover too became thinner contemplating on her beauty. Two scenes flash in
her mind; force of the unfastened horse and triggering up bamboo when unhitched
from one’s hold. They were common in her lover’s land and the force of freedom lie
in them makes her to indicate both of their love’s power.
Ignorant of my growing
Thinner thinking of him
Had he the boss of the hills
Where the bamboo triggers
Higher up unhitched
From the bending
With the force of
An unfastened horse
Did he too became thinner
Brooding over my beauty?

Vitta kudhiraiyaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 7:40 PM 0 comments
Labels: Gallops
Butter guard and a hot rock
Butter on a Sun-burning rock
Kurunthogai:10
The hero, unable to bear the agonies of love outpours his mind to a dear friend.
But the friend in turn meriting not much of the measure of his love ,condemns his
weakness to go so low craving for a girl. The hero becoming upset retorts on him
for not being sympathetic with his help less feelings. The comparison of his
melting mind for love is quite impressive. A dumb and lame person was put in
charge as the guard to protect the butter laid on a sun-burning rock. How can he
accomplish his duty?
Enough of your banter, friend
Better would it be;
Suggesting a change
For this unbearble pain of love
I bear ss helpless as
the dumb cripple in charge
to protect the melting butter
laid on a sun -burning rock
Velliveedhiyaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 12:36 AM 0 comments
Labels: Retort
Saturday, May 12, 2007
After the rain of love
Spent up lust
Kurunthogai.8
The lady after a hearty indulgence with the master finds something was missing in
her. The craving has gone. The sexual urge was subdued. She wondered how
everything ended so silently. Would the bond of love between him and her also end?
This question makes her to listen to the sound of brooks nearby. There was a
roaring rain last night and it ended somehow but as a continued link the brooks
run falling over the crevices of the rocks. She laughs within and claims more.

Lust might be Spent off entirely

As the tempestuous rain
At the previous night ended;
Oh my man of the hill
The sounding brooks continues
In the crevices of the hills
After the rainy night
Can your bond be broken?
Kabilar
Fishing rod and the bamboo shaft
Kurunthogai.9
A fishing rod in waiting suddenly rises up from the surface of the water after a
fish- catch. The forest elephant’s trial to pluck out a bamboo shaft is disturbed
instantly by the catapult coming from the field guards who throw stones to drive
off the elephant to protect their millet yield. The heroine refers the two scenes
to her lost modesty with the nicety after her mingling the lover the jungle
dweller.
I am alone here,
As like the fishing rod
Stretches up after a fish-catch
The forest elephant abandons
the greenish bamboo shaft
In fright of the catapult
Thrown by the field guards,
My delicacy has left me
After mingling with him
The jungle dweller

Meeneri Thoondilaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 12:51 AM 0 comments
Labels: Rainy night
Friday, May 11, 2007
The sound of loneliness
Far and Near

Kurunthogai.7
The poetic eye captures the loneliness of an abandoned house of a deserted
village, where squirrels play chirping and jumping hither and thither. The noise
made by their movements and sounds magnify the desperate isolation.

And the poet travels far to the town where crowds of people shouting in mirth and
joy in a festive spirit.

His mind compares them both to a different situation. None could have guessed it.
The heroine thinks of the hero’s nearness and his separation. The poet who wrote
this piece got named as the person who owned the verandah where squirrels play.
(Anilaadu Munrilaar)

If he is nearer
I get the festive
Gait of the town much
But if he leaves me,
The loneliness of the abandoned
House of a desert village
Where squirrels play
In the courtyard
Makes me yearn.

Anilaadu Munrilaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 5:42 AM 0 comments
Labels: Craving
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Red soil and rain water
(Kurunthogai-6)
These lines have become internationally famous since they were found printed on
the tube-train of Japan. Until so far we have selected the feelings of the heroine
and her friend. But these lines depict the hero’s mind. Wondering at the way they
the utterly unknown who were united; bound only by their love, the hero compares
themselves to the rain poured down from the sky on red soil. In turn the water
losing its colourlessness and the red soil losing its stark colour. Their unity is
found to be the blend of love.

Who was to whom my mother

To yours? What kin is my father
To yours in anyhow?
And how did you and I know
Ever to meet ?
Our hearts have blended
As pouring rain on
The red soik now.
Chempulappeyal Neeraar
Walking alone in midnight
Kurunthogai :23
Much feeble hearted she was. Once. Just becoming scary of small sounds. The
hooting of an owl or a male monkey’s leaping and jumping over the jack-fruit tree
bough in their yard was enough to make her terrify. Gone are the days. After
meeting him her mindset was utterly changed. She became very bold now to have a
long walk over the mountain slope in the deep dark of a night alone; expecting to
meet him.
Gone were the times,
Becoming scared of
The hooting of the hill-owl,
And of the sound made
By the male monkey’s leap and
Jump over the jackfruit
Bough in our yard.
Nothing hinders the seeking now
Long walk in the deep dark of night
On the long sloping
Mountain-ways for him
Kapilar
Kurunthogai: 22
Returning baskets and ringing bell
The evening returns back with the tillers who went to sow basket -loaded seeds
carrying them back now filled with the flowers. She looks at them eagerly
expecting better news about the ringing of the bell tied on her lover’s car driven
back through the woods returning homewards, to take part in the feast of the
evening. But it does not come. A hidden sigh echoes through out the poem

The baskets went carrying the seeds

To sow in the ploughed old soil
By the delighted tillers
Return back filled with flowers,
But not the news
Of the arriving car tied with
The open mouthed bell,
Well moulded in wax,
Ringing amidst the woods
Telling his return to enjoy
The feast of the evening.

Urodagathu Kandharathanaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 11:50 PM 0 comments
Labels: A hidden sigh
Disturbing littleness
Kurunthogai: 21
Teeth like sprouts of rice
Precision is the major technique handled on through out in Sangam literature,
especially in Kuruthogai. Lesser verbosity, presenting natural scenes indicating
hidden meanings, building a mental atmosphere, these are the special effects found
in almost all the poems of Kurunthogai. The following piece relates to the lady’s
rice sprout like teeth troubling her lover. A forest elephant gets frightened of
witnessing a while little snake with stripes. The lovely stripes of the little
young snake is compared to the teeth of the girl, as an understatement of many
details.
As a little white
Young snake with pretty stripes
Over its body
Troubles the jungle elephant;
This girl with her teeth
Like sprouts of new rice
And bangle stacked wrists
Afflicts me.
Satthi Naathanaar
Kurunthogai:20
A single plough owner
Now the hero has his remarks on his lover who has commanding eyes which are
broader and bamboo shaped broad shoulders with grace. Her home village was far
away.His mind is racing fast to reach her. The hastiness of his own mind gives him
a strange pain which reminds of a tiller who owns only a single plough to till the
vast area of land surrounded bygreenish garden.

Far away is her village

The dame with commandingly bigger eyes,
And graceful bamboo like broad shoulders
My mind’s racing fast
To reach her pains me
Like a tiller owning single plough
To till his dampened land
With broad greeny groves.

Oraer Uzhavanaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 7:31 PM 0 comments
Labels: Ploughing
Rut and the elephant
Neither devil nor disease
Kurunthogai:19
She got fed up with the people bickering at her, passing critical remarks for her
longing for him. They criticize that it was only mere lust. She ponders over the
disgust of the world on lust. Why do they make such fuss over it? Is it a devil or
a disease to become so scary? The nature of lust leads her to compare it with the
elephant’s rut. And she concludes the lust is not such damnable one as a devil or
disease; but it is only a temperament neither increasing nor decreasing but blooms
on seeing the one desirable.

The world condemns it as

Mere lust…lust.’
Neither is it a devil
Nor a disease;
Never increasing or decreasing
Like the rut begotten by the elephant
After eating the sprigs;
A temperament attained after
Meeting the wothier ones
Milaipperun kandhan
Homeguard’s alarm
Kurunthogai:19

The pitiless evening returns back to bring birds and animals to their residence.
The home guards who are incharge of closing the doorway for many entrants, came
out and enquires if anyone further expected, as they were about to close the
doors. The heoine was expecting him atleast then on the last moment. But was not
present .So she complains to her friend. The agony of the solitude night leaves a
silent undertone.
It came, the pitiless evening
Letting the birds and animals
To gather together.
The home-guards make an alarm
Outside the doorway of various entrants
Before closing the doors.
‘Are there any one left outside?’
Yet our lover did not
Present himself,o, my friend!
Nannaagaiyaar
The Pond and the brook
Kurunthogai:17

Her friend had met the hero at some place far from their home village. She wanted
to convey him her friend’s longing for him and indirectly suggest him to meet her
unwatched by anyone else. The friend’s indication explains us the background of
the village as well as a hair-care culture of the bygone days.

Closer only to the village

Lies the Pond and
The brook too is not
Too far away to it
None would be found disturbing there
Except the stork searching
For its prey.
The innocent dame would come
There to procure mud
From the garden around
For her hair-clean

Love in rain
Kuruthogai:16
Rainy season has many inexplicable charms. The lovers enjoy a strange kind of joy
if they are together when it rains. But missing the other partner would make one
highly dejected. Their existence itself goes blank and got questioned. In this
piece, she complains about the rainy season itself when watching a stag and its
pair play over the brook while drinking water. The season is meant for love and
union which is suggested by the two animals she was watching. And her waiting went
futile since he had return even now. He had been missing for many earlier seasons.
So this season seems to question her. ‘Are you living still?’

Thus came the rainy season

Found gifted with clouds
And enjoyed by
The stag playing with his darling pair
While drinking water
Runs over the hard pebbles
Enquiring us;
‘Are you still alive
Awaiting for the arrival
Of your sweet heart?’

Kovoor Kizhaar
A fallen fruit and seven ravenous crabs
Kurunthogai: 15
Lovers have their own chronicle of intricate feelings. Each and every trivial
incidents occurring in their love life are notified within their mind minutely.
The praise of the neighbours for their union and their abuse for a short while
separation too are accounted much. Now her man had departed in pursuit of some
benefit to somewhere else leaving her alone. And his return is delayed long; the
neem tree is blooming with its summer flowers. Her mind demands their postponement
of blossoming until her man’s arrival, yet she knew that the flowers would not
wait. But the cruel women who live around find out their opportunity. They began
gossiping as he might have abandoned her for some other woman. Her distressed mind
is portrayed by the poet capturing a different scene of a fallen fig fruit from
the white tree beside the river bank.Being trampled by seven ravenous crabs the
fruit suffers like her who heard the gossip.
It seems as if the summer’s glowing
New blossom on the dark neem tree
Will not stay uptil his coming.
Those cruel women’s tongues
Are working on me,
For now that he is gone,
grind me to paste
like the one fallen fruit of
the white fig tree
Stand beside the river-bank,
trampled on by seven ravenous crabs.
Paranar
Sparrows and sad evenings
Kurunthogai:14

She was obsessed with the love for him ; every scene she watches made her think of
the hero whose arrival was delayed unduly. And the evening came; the chirrup of
the homely sparrows attracted her attention. They were waiting for their fledgling
wallowing for long searching their food in the public ground where the manure was
heaped. She noticed the pathos sounded in the noise of chirrings.Their craving for
the fledlings at the fall of evening made her to doubt of a very different thing.
Would not there be evenings fall and homely sparrows chirr up for their fledglings
in the country he had gone? Won’t they remind him of her awaiting waiting with
agonies for his return?

Are there no evenings fall

And agonies of separation follow
Like those felt by
The homely sparrows with closed wings
Like withering Ambal flowers;
Waiting for their fledglings
To return from their wallow in
Their village grounds
Where he had gone my friend?
Maamalaadan
Fire and Water
Kurunthogai : 13

They were almost like two oppose elements. One was mightier and the other was
meek. One would destroy anything, but the other would grow anything. Their meeting
ended in the extinction of the destroying force the first one had. The hero
recalls how his lady won his fiery valour with her cooling beauty; her broad
shoulder was a poetic contrast to her small family.

Chilly water like was

Her beauty of the one
That big shouldered daughter of\
The humble hill-man of the small hamlet
Where the pure white waterfalls
Descending down from the mountain
To run over the rifty rocks
And lo, she extinguished my fire like valour.

Kabilar
The sweaty hug
Kurunthogai:12
In this piece of poem a foster mother has a funny complaint to make on the girl
she had had brought up. Some time time back the girl used to like her hugging,
finding a touching sign of love in those hugs. As the girl had become matured now,
exposed to a different kind of embrace whic was more endearing after meeting her
lover. Unaware of it the foster mother goes to hug her dear child. Then comes the
hurting reply.
‘You are sweating.’
The poet to add more effect refers the passing clouds of Podhigai hills which
carry on the scents of Vengai and Kaandhal flowers . A trace of jealousy found in
a mother’s heart is subtly hinted here.

I went to hug her,

My foster daughter
Who smells with the perfumes of
The Vengai and Kaandhal flowers
But tender and chillier than the Aambal
Of the clouds passing Podhigai
Belonged to the braceleted Aai (the munificent);
But she resisted,
Saying ‘I am sweating’
Then I understood
Her dislike for my embrace!

Mosi keeranaar
The Unfastened horse and unhitched bamboo

Kurunthogai:11

She had become thinner with the thoughts of him. The news reaches her that he the
Hillman lover too became thinner contemplating on her beauty. Two scenes flash in
her mind; force of the unfastened horse and triggering up bamboo when unhitched
from one’s hold. They were common in her lover’s land and the force of freedom lie
in them makes her to indicate both of their love’s power.
Ignorant of my growing
Thinner thinking of him
Had he the boss of the hills
Where the bamboo triggers
Higher up unhitched
From the bending
With the force of
An unfastened horse
Did he too became thinner
Brooding over my beauty?

Vitta kudhiraiyaar
Posted by vaiyavan at 7:40 PM 0 comments
Labels: Gallops
Butter guard and a hot rock
Butter on a Sun-burning rock
Kurunthogai:10
The hero, unable to bear the agonies of love outpours his mind to a dear friend.
But the friend in turn meriting not much of the measure of his love ,condemns his
weakness to go so low craving for a girl. The hero becoming upset retorts on him
for not being sympathetic with his help less feelings. The comparison of his
melting mind for love is quite impressive. A dumb and lame person was put in
charge as the guard to protect the butter laid on a sun-burning rock. How can he
accomplish his duty?
Enough of your banter, friend
Better would it be;
Suggesting a change
For this unbearble pain of love
I bear ss helpless as
the dumb cripple in charge
to protect the melting butter
laid on a sun -burning rock
Velliveedhiyaar
Spent up lust
Kurunthogai.8
The lady after a hearty indulgence with the master finds something was missing in
her. The craving has gone. The sexual urge was subdued. She wondered how
everything ended so silently. Would the bond of love between him and her also end?
This question makes her to listen to the sound of brooks nearby. There was a
roaring rain last night and it ended somehow but as a continued link the brooks
run falling over the crevices of the rocks. She laughs within and claims more.

Lust might be Spent off entirely

As the tempestuous rain
At the previous night ended;
Oh my man of the hill
The sounding brooks continues
In the crevices of the hills
After the rainy night
Can your bond be broken?
Kabilar
Fishing rod and the bamboo shaft
Kurunthogai.9
A fishing rod in waiting suddenly rises up from the surface of the water after a
fish- catch. The forest elephant’s trial to pluck out a bamboo shaft is disturbed
instantly by the catapult coming from the field guards who throw stones to drive
off the elephant to protect their millet yield. The heroine refers the two scenes
to her lost modesty with the nicety after her mingling the lover the jungle
dweller.
I am alone here,
As like the fishing rod
Stretches up after a fish-catch
The forest elephant abandons
the greenish bamboo shaft
In fright of the catapult
Thrown by the field guards,
My delicacy has left me
After mingling with him
The jungle dweller

Meeneri Thoondilaar
Far and Near

Kurunthogai.7
The poetic eye captures the loneliness of an abandoned house of a deserted
village, where squirrels play chirping and jumping hither and thither. The noise
made by their movements and sounds magnify the desperate isolation.

And the poet travels far to the town where crowds of people shouting in mirth and
joy in a festive spirit.

His mind compares them both to a different situation. None could have guessed it.
The heroine thinks of the hero’s nearness and his separation. The poet who wrote
this piece got named as the person who owned the verandah where squirrels play.
(Anilaadu Munrilaar)

If he is nearer
I get the festive
Gait of the town much
But if he leaves me,
The loneliness of the abandoned
House of a desert village
Where squirrels play
In the courtyard
Makes me yearn.

Anilaadu Munrilaar
Kurunthogai-4
Innumerable were the ways of getting solace when the pangs of separation cause
grief. Here she (the heroine) hides her pang of separation to her girl friend in a
clever manner. She accuses her friend for attributing much of healing words and
consolations for the delaying lover.’Maanai’, a kind of creeper sprawls over big
round rocks is made into imagery here for the pang of separation. The heroine
refers that the maanai creeper would mistakenly sprawl on a sleeping elephant. Her
hero’s hill has comical sceneries. And she recollects the way in which he took
leave from her with an assurance. He would ever occupy her heart. By revealing it
, the heroine rebukes her girl friend.
The creeper ‘maanai’ that sprawls
On large rounded stones
Usually on my hero’s hills
Shifts sometimes over a sleeping elephant.
And he offered me infrangible pledge,On parting,
His arms twining with mine
‘Never would I depart
From the space of your heart!’
Buddy, what causes you grievingWhen I bear it all?
Paranar
Posted by vaiyavan at 7:40 AM 0 comments
Labels: separation
beauty
When translating Kurunthogai Scenes, my mind slipped back into a chief question.
What is beauty? How to identify beauty? Is beauty a sense of personal appraisal?
That means what is identified as beauty by me, may not be recognized by others at
all?
In Tamil, Nachinarkkiniyar, an interpreter (We call them ‘Uraiasiriyar’ the one
who interprets the meaning of poetical versions in prose form) points out that
‘Beauty is what is apprehended by some one as apprehensible factor.’ I have come
across a Lady’s photo somewhere else. Her eyes and lips spoke volumes and volumes
of poetic expressions. Were they meant special for me alone? I wish to clarify. So
I affix her photo
Posted by vaiyavan at 7:12 AM 0 comments
Kurunthogai Scenes.2

The hero came and met the girl. Love instantly captivated her. She began to dream
and think of him, getting leaner day by day, behaved withdrawn inwards.. The
sudden change in her behavior and physical form cause worry to the parents. In
those times the custom was to call a woman diviner (probably a soothsayer’s
daughter) to know the true reason of any change in a matured girl. Accordingly the
parents brought a diviner to their house.

The diviner would invoke all the gods by her songs to help her find the reason of
the girl’s change. The girl’s friend who knew the true cause for her friend’s
change was present there. When the diviner had put paddy on the muram (Winnowing
pan) began invoking gods with her songs.
Simultaneously her winnowing of the paddy on the muram continued. The heroine’s
friend was watching everything. With a cunning smile on her lips the girl asked
her to sing more, particularly of the hills of her friend’s lover who caused all
those changes on her. These crisp and short lines bring us the picture of a
singing diviner who winnows her pan and the clever girl who was the friend of the
heroine with her tactile remarks. The lines follow.

Sing the song sing the song

O, Diviner’s daughter, long haired one!
Sing of the song of His higher up hills,
Sing it more again,
Diviner’s daughter, O diviner’s daughter!

Avvaiyaar

Kurunthogai Scenes.3

The lovers joined together in a remote place where none was present. The girl’s
friend was worried about the chance of his declining. She questioned her about the
social consequence if the man denies any such relationship between him and her.
But the heroine was not worried and replied her friend that none were present when
they had an intercourse except a stork.
A brook and a stork waiting for the right fish and the background of their love
were picturized below in a mellow way.

None were there except that thief.

If he falters what could I do?
A short millet’s stem like
Green legged stork
Which gazed for the fish
In the passing brook
Was also present
When I joined him.

Kapilar
Kurunthogai
Sex was too tender a feeling in the past to the Tamils. The great saint poet
Thiruvalluvar says ‘More tender than the flower is sex.’ Their concern for the
sexual side of the love was not mere lust alone. It is comprised with innumerable
feelings of the meetings, Unification and separations. Kurunthogai the great idyll
of the Tamils of Sangam period, one of the Eight Compilations (Ettuthogai) speaks
elaborately of the many tender thoughts and feelings of the lovers (male and
female)
Below comes one.
In this piece the lady love talks to her friend, burdened with her loneliness she
thinks of her man who went for some purpose over the forest, missing for a long
time. Even the call of the Lizard for mating makes her to remind him. In turn she
thinks whether he would remember her or not. Hence she transfers her memory on his
long walk over the cactus-grown woods.

Won’t he think of me, buddy?

When he crosses
The cactus woods
listening to the red legged
lizard calling its life-mate
for a courtship;
the sound resembling
the polishing run of arrow of a bandit over the rocks.
Won’t he remember me then
At least my buddy?

(Written by)
Palai Paadiya Perunkadungo