#thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

Kur. 28 - raging winds. A poem with a vibrant woman's voice for Women's Day. Many poems in the Kurunthokai set up the contrast between the frentic activity of the troubled heart and the peaceful town that sleeps so sweetly. Nights are cruel. This particular heroine, long separated from the hero, is beyond consoling. The storm that rages in her heart is such that she would either hurt herself or others. She would wail her heart out, if she could. Yet, she cannot do any of those things for she can't afford for the whole town to come to know of her affair. When she is so distressed how is if fair for the town to sleep like a baby! She is upset, she is angry, there is a storm brewing in her heart. Winds lashing. Her distress wears her out. And yet the town sleeps on! The woman's voice comes out strongly here. Though the words are powerful, the underlying sentiment is helplessness indeed. She is like a boat caught in a storm, tossing about the ocean of the night. #avvaiyar #thinaipaalai #kurunthokai #thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

306. Bees, pollen, female angst Plaintive yet self-aware, the Sangam heroine's voice is prominent in poems like these, where she (or the poet) explicitly shares her exact emotional state with the reader. The hero is continuing to meet the heroine secretly, without making any firm offers of marriage. She is miffed. She thinks should should act all cool and reserved around him to get him to wonder what's going on 😁 And so she tells herself before she meets him: no sweet talk. no friendly banter. Let him figure out that she is, you know, a bit annoyed. But all that pretence is thrown to the winds when he does come to meet her! She probably rushed into his arms with a big goofy grin, like bees madly capering around flowers. Our movies and songs make much of male angst, the anxiety of meeting women, the what-will-I-say-to-her and how-will-I-impress-her phases. This poem props up a fine tribute to female angst, something I wish we heard about more often! #Ammoovanar #Thinaineythal #kurunthokai #thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

304. Swaying on the waves of grief. (An interesting counterpoint to Kur. 228, posted a few days back) Have you seen clouds of water hyacinths, swaying with the water? That gentle swaying restlessness is captured in this poem; it is a snapshot of the heroine's essential anxiety. It is a brilliant metaphor! Saying that separation is bittersweet is a bit of an understatement. The sweetness can be nectarine, the bitterness can be agony. In love, in all consuming love, her heart is no longer hers, it goes away to him. Heartless, she floats on air. But when she misses him, when she grieves for him, he heart is right by her to take on the full force of the blow. It sways, between elation and grief. It sways, between hope and despair. It sways, between faith in him and nail-biting anxiety. It sways like the plants on their ocean. 'Kandal' (கண்டல்) can refer to plants that grow in water, including mangroves and hyacinths. They are usually tenaciously rooted in the water, just like the heroine has tenacious roots in the form of her strict parents binding her to propriety. But they are flowering plants; their petals float go distant lands. They are water plants, they live with the waves. It is only a matter of time before they float away. However, until then, they are condemned to the restless to-and-fro of the waves. #Kurunthokai #thinaineythal #ammoovanaar #thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

Kur. 269: Home alone. This is such a fun poem! A classic reminder that though we may choose to pompously place Sangam poems on a pedestal and fetishize them for their antiquity, the poems themselves are delightfully fresh. It seems like fathers of daughters are fearsome, hawk-eyed fathers always, at least to their daughter's boyfriends. Maybe the allusion to his strength is the heroine subtly warning the hero, yet reassuring her boyfriend that he is not at home to terrorize him 😀 Go fast, go fast, urges the heroine. She wants her boyfriend to come and begone before her dad and mum get back home! I wonder whether lyricist Viveka thought of this poem when he wrote 'Daddy Mummy veettil illa' :D #ThinaiNeythal #Kalladanar #Kurunthokai #Thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

221. Tender little buds The markers of a Mullai poem, symbolizing the patient love of a wife who waits for her absent husband, are abundantly present in this poem. The husband would have promised to return in the season of rains (கார்காலம்), which is also the season when Mullai flowers bloom. The landscape is a pastural land, neither mountain not forest nor an agricultural tract. The time is evening: neither day nor night. The Mullai flowers are just starting to open their petals - neither fully closed nor fully open. The heroine is at the door, neither inside her house nor outside. The hero is in her heart but not physically there: he is both present and absent. Mullai is thus a threshold, an interminable wait, a Trisanku-land. In this poem, the heroine sees Mullai vines flowering; it means that the rainy season is here, her husband should be with her. But he hasn't returned. She can't help but see reminders of his absence everywhere; even the hair of the goatherd is adorned by nothing but tender Mullai buds. Just like the little white flowers open in the evening, the wife misses her husband most at that hour; she yearns for him. There is a mention of bartering in this poem (milk for gruel); in another poem, salt is bartered for rice. #kurunthokai #thinaimullai #thalaivikootru #uraiyurmudhukottranar

[sripuram]

96. Surely you jest! Even if she is our best friend, someone who is inseparable, we doesn't tolerate it if they criticize our beloved, do we? The hero spends lots of stolen time with the heroine, but hasn't spoken of marriage yet. Her friend is anxious: would he propose? Her concern manifests as rebuke; she asks the heroine if he has said anything said; perhaps she should say something to him? The heroine can't bear even that hint of slur on his character. She responds, and how! Sarcasm dripping, she issues a grave warning: speak no more about my lover's integrity or else. The heroine says he hails from the mountains of waterfalls and vengai trees. She subtly indicates that like vengai trees are nourished by the waterfalls, he would take care of her! #kurunthokai #thinaikurinji #alloornanmullaiyar #thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

387. The dark deluge of the night. For those who must wait, there is nothing as terrifying as the endless night. கையறு மாலை - helpless evening. Literally, கை-அறு - a state when your hands are cut off - what can one do in such a state? But swim one must - across eventide and make it through twilight to nightfall. Even that's of little good, for after that, the ocean of the night stretches on. What can you say to this! # ThinaiMullai #Kurunthokai #Kangulvellathaar #thalaivikootru

[sripuram]

Kurunthokai 20: The fools. Some of these poems are practically outbursts, filled with pain dripping with sarcasm. The hero, who believes that it is unworthy of him to not earn his own fortune, sets out into the wilderness. His resolve gives him the fortitude to bear the separation from his beloved. The heroine's friend goes go her, bearing the news of his leaving. She lashes out - if he thinks that leaving me is the wise thing go do, let him! It's okay, left behind here, we can be the fools. The key to the poem lies in the word உரவோர். At its root is the word உரன், meaning strength, fortitude. The hero has the strength to do the 'right thing', the strength to be separated from his wife. He is 'wise' in the sense that he can control his emotions and bear the longings of parting. She cannot; hence she calls herself unwise, ignorant, stupid - a fool. #kurunthokai #thinaipaalai #Koperunchozhan #thalaivikootru