#thalaivankootru

[sripuram]

Kur. 29 Riding the wave of unbearable agony. The Sangam Poet Avvaiyar's poems are some of the finest in Kurunthokai. Presenting a rather complex poem today with many many layers. It took me over a week to digest this poem, and some phrases will probably stay with me till the grave :) The poem is like a flash of lightning, depicting a particular emotional state that is at the cusp of abject despair and absolute hope. In the throes of love, the mind swings around like a monkey, and this poem truly captures that bipolar state. The hero speaks this poem to his own heart, as he analyzes his feelings. At this stage in their relationship, his girlfriend, though very much in love with him, is a little apprehensive about his intentions. She wants firm commitment. At the urgings of her friend, she rather unkindly informs him that she will not be available to meet him at night in secret any more. Bewildered, he wonders why she, who spoke nothing but sweet words to her, would suddenly act to strangely. His heart breaks. Like an unfired clay pot caught in a storm, he is a broken man. The phrase 'உள்ளம் தாங்கா வெள்ளம் நீந்தி' is brilliant in this context. He knows his heart wants her. Nothing but her. That thought gives him strength and he swings from despair to hope. The only thing to make all this pain worthwhile is he can get her. But for that, she needs to trust him. Perhaps the hero realizes her insecurity. Or wishes she would have more faith in him. He wants her to cling to him with absolute faith, like a baby monkey clings to its mother as she jumps up and down tall mountains. If she could love him thus, that's all he would want! Thus this poem presents the entire arc of his despair and hope in seven short lines. Translating this poem, with its arc, layers and storyline was quite and effort. I'm only presenting what I have after a week, and I know it can be improved. Metaphors keep coming up in Indian thought. They act as symbols to communicate specific meanings. The clingy baby monkey metaphor, Markata nyaya, is a rather recognizable example. #Kurunthokai #ThinaiKurinji #avvaiyar #thalaivankootru

[sripuram]

291. Dew-kissed flowers. A breathtaking Kurinji poem, by that master of Kurinji poems, Kabilar, for today. The timeline of an agam poem spans distinct stages: first, the sheltered heroine needs to step outside her home into the world; that's when she meets the hero. Usually she stays all day in the millet field, chasing away parrots from the crops, when he chances upon her. It is only after they meet and make love, can the rest of the story develop - she remembers him fondly, defends his love to her friend, waits for him with excitement, sends the friend as a mediator, turns pale when she misses him, her worried parents send for the sibyl or the priest, the friend informs her parents about the affair and the marriage is arranged. But the first meeting? That's special. Usually the heroine describes the first meeting to her friend, in poems where the kurugu watches over their lovemaking, or their hearts mingle like rain and earth. Here is a poem where the hero describes his first meeting with the heroine to his friend. The Agam poems are full of allusions and subtle pointing; this poem is a jewel in its crown. The hero does not tell us what exactly transpired between him and the heroine, at least directly. All he tells his friend is this. The heroine was guarding her millet fields, when a flock of parrots attacked. But when she sounded her rattle to scare them off, they were so mesmerised by the sound, they thought she was singing! They would not leave. On seeing this, she weeps; her eyes, dark like Kuvalai flowers, fill with tears like dew. They are disturbed like the petals are, when bees swarm about them. Such a beautiful metaphor! The flying parrots, the swarming bees, the hero who hovers close by. But I wonder. How did he get so close to her eyes, to see her lashes flutter like bees, to see them mist over with tears like dew? Who was that rogue of a parrot that would not leave and teased her to tears? The hero says no more. But we are left with the image of that dark, dewy waterlily in a deep pond, green as moss, and bees buzzing around it. #Kurunthokai #Kapilar #ThinaiKurinji #thalaivankootru

[sripuram]

206. Beware of love! One of the most entertaining aspects of reading the Kurunthokai is realizing how some ideas have travelled almost virtually unchanged over the centuries. 'இந்த பொண்ணுங்களே இப்படி தான், நம்பாதீங்க' is one of them. When the hero's friend chides him for his lovesickness, the hero blames the heroine: she is very sweet, so sweet that she causes him unbearable torment, drives him nuts, by just existing! He can't help it, he was unwise enough to get mixed up in this situation. If you are any wiser, he tells his friend, don't fall in love. Beware of the charms of women! While the poem's most poetic moment lies in that sweetest of women turning into a cold-blooded tormentor, I can't help but read more into it. This is not a route a traditional commentator would take, so pleasd excuse my indulgence. The idea of Woman as a temptress, a siren, who toys with men and 'distracts' them from their duties is a fairly dominant idea in our cultural history. Even the sweetest and gentlest women, in all their Madonna-glory, is still suspect. This is because love, desire, is magical; it can't be controlled. One needs to bow down to it. In Man's view, Woman becomes the symbol of his own love, his own desire. In this poem, the heroine is held responsible for the hero's pangs of love. The hero informs his friend that he was unwise to fall in love; wise people would be more careful. These are ideas that are repeated today, ideas that our modern society recognizes as being inherently misogynistic. Measuring this poem with today's gender-equality yardstick would of course be foolish. Secondly, this is an agam poem that probes the affairs of the heart. It is not like love's elephant-charge can be stopped by the feeble doors of ideas such as these. The 'wise' friend would go on to fall in love. Perhaps there lies the eternal wisdom of the agam poet. #ThinaiKurinji #AiyoorMudavanar #Thalaivankootru #Kurunthokai

[sripuram]

Kurunthokai 40: Red earth and rainwater. Translating a very popular, perhaps the best known Kurunthokai poem today. Thanks to the reader who requested it. The idea of destiny and fate outside our control (ஊழ், பால், அமைப்பு) runs through many Sangam poems. Even the equally famous Puram poem that begins 'Yaadum oore yaavarum kelir' has the gorgeous visual metaphor for life as a precarious raft on rapids. The lover in the agam poems is never chosen deliberately - he or she just happens to you. It's right out of a Gautham Menon movie. The hero and heroine locked eyes, and they fell in love. It was momentous. They make love. Right afterwards, the heroine is afraid. Would he go away, and never come back? How could she bear to be parted from him? She doesn't say anything, but her body language gives it away. The hero understands, and gently tells how how their love has made them one! They had no way of knowing each other before - their families are unconnected. Yet, like water and earth (what a delicate metaphor!), they have mingled and dissolved as one in love! When rainwater hits the red earth, it takes on the hue, smell and taste of the earth. It runs red. The earth takes on the fluidity, freshness and moist nature of the water. Together, they make new life. You cannot part them, they have become as one. And so, he says, our hearts have become one in love on their own. It just happened. We are beyond parting now. (A.K. Ramanujan translates this phrase as 'red earth and pouring rain'. It is such a lovely phrase that like the poet Sempulapeineeraar, named after his metaphor, one may as well call AKR 'the poet of red earth and pouring rain'.) #Kurunthokai #ThinaiKurinji #Sempulapeineeraar #Thalaivankootru

[sripuram]

95. "மால்வரை இழிதருந் தூவெள் அருவி கல்முகைத் ததும்பும் பன்மலர்ச் சாரல் சிறுகுடிக் குறவன் பெருந்தோட் குறுமகள் நீரோ ரன்ன சாயல் தீயோ ரன்னவென் உரனவித் தன்றே. " Born from craggy mountains, Roaring down the rocks, A blinding white cascade Feistily fords the flowery slopes Of their tiny hamlet. Their kuravan's little girl, broad shouldered, fluid like flowing water, subdued me, my fiery manliness. #Kurunthogai #ThinaiKurinji #Kapilar #KurunthogaiKapilar #Thalaivankootru