CHAPTER THREE
METONYMIC METAPHORS
CHAPTER 111
METONYMIC METAPHORS
Kuruntokai~s
enriched by a variety of similes. The simile is rhetonc ~n
the oldest form and Tolkappiyar gives four broad divisions of similes. The ~ ~ m i l e
1s used by the poet to intensify and heighten the aesthetic aspect of poetry. It 1s
used not only by poets but also by common people to illustrate and drive home
their point of view. The poetic simile found In ~ufunfokaiusesboth animate and
~nanimateobjects of nature to kindle the unagination and to deepen the appreciation
and vlslon of the rdea put forth. Scholars have always tned to classlfy similes and
Tolkapp~armentions four fundamental divisions According to hun, a simile can be
formed with an acti\*ltyor result, shape or colour ( T o l k d ~ p ~ p'Pomhr~kdram'
m
'
(/vamav~,wl'- crinrrum 1). A smile
IS
employed as a beaut~filldrapery to dress up
the idea to be communicated. Tolkappiyar observes that the object used as a t h g
compared in the simile must be superior to the object that 1s compared ( TokdDD~wm'Porulaitkdram'
-
-'Urrzmay~yal'
citciram 3). Hence, the best thing wlthln the
genus must be chosen for comparison, and there must be some common ground of
comparison between the two things wholly or partially. Flora and fauna and other
natural phenomena were used by the Kurunroku~poets for companson. There is
no record extant that these poets wrote exclusive nature poems glorifying her
various aspects, Nature had always been the ~nseparablebackdrop In all the
contexts, where intense human feelings were expressed, as a mute witness, an
active participant, a catalyst or a source of solace to suit the need.
Metaphor is generally defined as a word that denotes a referent other than
its normal one.
A metaphor produces a 'psychic res~stance' In the listener and there
is a sort of break in the flow. It excites attention and requires
interpretation for understanding the purport. The actual referent of
the word has to be taken as different from its normal one. But in
some way connected with it , elther through simllanty or through
some other relation .... The three essential conditions necessary for
metaphor are a)The inapplicability or the unsuitability of the primary
meaning in the context b)Some relation between the primary and the
actual referent of the word and c)Sanct~onfor the transferred sense
by popular usage, or a definite motive justify~ngthe transfer.'
The metaphors used in Kuruntokoiare not mere metaphors in the general
sense of the word as they are an integral part of the complete thought process
expressed In the poem.
The object of comparison and the referent have so many
aspects In common that one dissolbes into the other producing an implicit
comparlson. A.K.Ramanu]an calls this an 'inset'. and adds that
the inset 1s essentially a "metonymy", and in presentra relationship,
where both terns are present, u,here the s~gnifierand the signified
belong to the same universe, share the same "landscape". Both are
parts of one scene. Such a metonymy, rather than metaphor, is .he
favorite poetic figure of the classical Tam~lsMetaphor implies
diversity ("seeing similars, in dissimilars" said Aristotle), to be
unified by comparison. Poetry for the Tamils does not unify a
multiverse but expresses a universe from wlthln, speaking through
any of its parts. The man belongs to the scene, the scene represents
the man. (Poems 246-2471,
Nature is suggestive, symbolic and instructive. Every aspect of
nature represented a symbol for the Kuruntokaipoets to illustrate an
~ n e x p l i c a b l einner meaning. T h e rainwater on the red soil 1s an
lnsignlficant natural phenomenon, repeated millions o f tlmes with the onset
of every monsoon. But this seemingly unimportant incldent happens to
signify t h e predestined union o f two loving hearts, thus stressing the loss of
~ n d i v i d u a lidentity and the gain of the common identity. T h e man and h ~ s
love, blessed b y Providence, can never suffer any separation. T h l s hope
suggested through the natural phenomenon of the mingling o f ramwater with
red soil is called iraicci, Such suggestions are very important to understand
the emotional and aesthetic aspect o f Kurunroka~verse.
Kuruntoko! abounds in allegories A n allcgory 1s also a kind of
suggestion, but with a definite d ~ f f e r e n c e Prof. T P . M e e n a k s h ~ s u n d a r a n
compares such allegorical suggestions to algebraic formulas where the terms
used are replaced b y respective concrete numbers at a later stage.2 Thls
kind o f an allegory is known as u//uyui, hlghly Yuggestlve o f a hldden
meaning ii//u(ai helps the poet in condensing the concentrated emotion info
a compact capsule and 11 is rightly called a veiled c o ~ n p a r ~ s obecause
n
~t
c a r l ~ e san inner import. According to Toihapplyar's poetlc tradition, only a
fzw characters are allowed to employ this i m p l ~ c l tImager) In their
speeches. O f these, the herolne and her maid enjoy a speclal favour. and
this kind of poetic contrivance is used to intensify the aesthetic sensibility.
T h e veiled expression can be formed by using symbols denoting action,
result, shape, colour and birth or class (To/kdpul~@-'Porululikdram''
Uwmayiyaf ' - critttram 2 5 ).
Tamlzhannal has made an exhausttve study of u l l u p r and in hts
book o f the same tttle makes the following observation
U//u-rat 1s a suggestive meaning o f a poem It occurs in the
form o f description o f land uI/u+-t uvarnani 1s to be
understood together wlth the meantng o f the poem The
meaning o f the poem becomes complete and g a ~ n sIn value,
only by thls implied slmile In other words, it is planned and
expressed by the poet, and understood by the scholars who
know the tradttion It IS functional in a poem not ornamental
U l f u p i occurs mostly In Marutam .\'eyral and Kuruli/t poems
U N w r mostly contains the impeachment of the hero-the
crrtic~smand the correction of the hero
Tam~zhannal in the same context also makes a very valuable study
comparing
the Dhvanr theory o f Sanskrtt wtth u l l u p i and yatcct
In U//u/ai, Ufunurur, Nukui, Cultu and C~ruppuare to be
compared w ~ t hDhvarii theory of Sanskrit In /raicci, they
suggest something beyond the11 textual meanins /raiccr and
Cfrunumt are to be class~fiedas K i ~ < aD1iva111,.\'uklkiii and
C~ruppuas V u ~ l h uDhi~untand Curu ~ n dCNl~rarU ~ v r n o mas
A lunkdru D h vunr
The similes. images, metaphors, symbols and allegories are employed
by the poets o f the origlnai to carry the complete weight o f the emot~onal
expertences communicated
attempting
A translator has to take utmost care while
to transport this to a forelgn readlng dudience and the Engllsh
renderings of the select _Kurun~okutpoems are analysed thoroughly in thls
chapter to assess the approprtateness and correctness of the translated
versions
KURUNTOKAI 8
Kurunfokut verse 8 is the courtesan's complaint In the form of a
dramatic monologue. She retorts furiously o n hearing that the hero's w ~ f e
had spoken of her d e s p a ~ r ~ n g l yThe p o e t - ~ ~ a n k u tVankandr
i
uses u l / ~ t ,
the veiled compar~sonand a s i m ~ l eto bring out the contrast in the
behaviour of the hero In two ent~relyd~fferentcontexts
Ttie hero belongs
to the neyrai tract where the r ~ p emango which falls from a tree that has
grown b e s ~ d ea field,
IS
made an easy meal by a vdiar flsh that lives in the
pond nearby. The fortunate fish has made the least effort for this hearty
meal
The hero spoke big of the courtesan when he was u ~ t hher In her
quarters but the moment he went back to his house he became a willing
sla\e to his son's mother
Her power ober h ~ mu n s so absolute and
domltleering that he behaved l ~ k ea mirror Image of her, a ]mere puppet to
her
W I S ~
L ~ k eall Kuruntokui poems, thls verse is also in one long sentence
w ~ t ha vetled comparison In the first half and a simile in the second
The
ull~+raistresses the easygotng nature of the hero u h o seems to be u ~ n n i i l g
fabours w ~ t h o u ttrylng for them whereas the s ~ m l l ethrows Iigllt on his
c o n d ~ t ~ o n ebehavlour
d
in the presence of his allegedlq dggresslie wlfe
kajagi m i t t u vilaintuku timpajam
pajaga vilai katiru mirrag
emmi: perumoji kairit tammi!
kaiyunkilun tirkkat tirkkum
e i p p i v a i pdla
mevaga ceiyuntag putalvag r l i k e
This poem has been translated by Shanmugam Plllai and Ludden,
M L Thangappa and A K Ramanujan
The commentators affirm the context
to be the speech of the mlstress when she heard that the man's wlfe had
spoken 111 of her
The right comprehension of thc context alone w ~ l lenable
the reader to fathom the anger and anguish found in the courtesan's
compialnt
In her fury, she refuses to acknowledge the man's uife's soclal
status and sarcast~callylabels her "his son's mother", hlntiny that his ulfe's
role stops wlth merely mother~nghis son
Shanmugam P i l l a ~and Ludden's English version of the original
followed by an explanatron where it
IS
IS
s a ~ dthat the context o f the poem
IS
the reaction of the courtesan when she heard that "the hero had spoken 111 of
tier"
Hence the fish mentioned In the veiled compdrlsoii necessarily refcrs
to the courtcsan u h o neber went out of her \%ny to win the man's attention
The mdn uooed lier
lo
win her favour when he was u'itli lier and was a
happ) \ictim to her feminine charms
Hence he hds no rlght to bellttle her
in the presence of his wife to appease her fury
T h a t man
from t h e village where c a r p
in t h e pond
snatch ripe mangoes as they fall
from trees beside t h e field :
( ~ t a l l c snot in the ortp~nal)
Shanmugam P ~ i l a iand Ludden have used thc u o r d "snatch" to denote
the manner in which the fish came to possess the ripe maiigo
"To snatch"
means "to make a sudden effort to seize something'' and thts c h o ~ c eo f the
word definitely acknowledges the "effort" made elther by the lady or the
man, to whomsoever the word "fish" may refer
The orlglnal does not make
any such acknowledgement as there 1s no reference to either the courtesan
taklng dellberate efforts to entice the man or the man making conscious
moves to wln her favour
The word "snatch" dlstorts the entlre grace of the
allegory by ignoring the passlvlty on the part o f the flsh
You know he comes f r o m
w h e r e t h e fresh-water s h a r k in the pools
catch with their mouths
t h e mangoes a s they fall, r i p e
f r o m the trees on the edge of the field.
( ~ t a l ~ cnot
s In the original)
A K Ramanujan's v e r s ~ o nis closer to the splrlt of tlie u/lu.rai, as he
uses a safer word "catch"
But he adds the phrase " w ~ t hthe11 mouth"
attempting to explain the obvious, succeeding In causing only an amusing
effect ("catch wlth the11 mouth"
-
naturall) the only way for
d
fish to hold
Unfortunately, M L Thangappa has gone nowhere near the allegory
s
simply accuses the mdn of iilii~npthro\bn to the
The mlsiress in h ~ verslon
u ~ n dall his p r o m ~ s e sby becomlng ohedlent to h ~ su i f c W ~ t h o u rtile
~ m p l l c i tcomparison used in the orlg~nal.M L Thanydppa's translated
version suffers an unwarranted mutilation
Ah, this fickle m a n
H a s gone back
T o his wondrous wife
T h r o w i n g to the wind
All his promises,
A n d how obedient
H e h a s become t o h e r !
And how obedient
He has become to'her !
He now dances to her tune
Even as the very image
Of herself
l o the mirror
Is she not the mother
Of his son ?
Cankam poets have never used any idea or word redundant to the
context, and their time-proven fame is the legitimate reward for their skill
in communicating concrete emotlons In a condensed form
M L Thangappa
as a translator, has not done justice to the simile either
The original compares the hero to a mirror image - "dtippdvai". The
simile is rude and pungent, expressing every atom of the anger felt by the
courtesan In an a c ~ dtone
To her, the man
IS
nou a mere i~felesspuppet,
inefficiency incarnate, a "thing" Even his mobility is at the mercy of his
wife
His actions are not his, as he has become a mirror Image. The last
l ~ n eof the poem portrays him to he one eager and desirous to fulfil every
wlsh of his "son's mother". The Courtesan's sneer is the outcome of her
injured ego. M.L. Thangappa's version completel! falls lo capture this
punch in the s ~ m i l e . The speaker, in h ~ srendering, wails ueakly
Is she not the mother
Of his son?
Shanmugam Plllai and Ludden's version is faithful to the original to
the extent of translating the meaning of the simile.
b u t now, in their house,
h e lifts his a r m s a n d legs,
like a n image in t h e m i r r o r
a p u p p e t to every wish
of his son's mother
In the original, the counesan makes a vengeful emphas~son the man's
inefficiency in the last word of the poem "rdykk?" (meaning, oheylng his son's
mother ONLY). There is no such emphasis in Shanmugam Pilla~and Ludden's
version and it appears anaemic aesthetically
K u r u n t o k a i p o e m s have the magic of promoting the evolution of one
smgle emotion in all its intensity wlthin the canvas of a few l ~ n e s Every
word adds depth and density to the emotion, a l l o w ~ n git to he dissolved and
distributed Into every syllable of the poem
A K Ramanujan's intuitive
response to the spirit of the original as a poet-translator helps h ~ mappraise
the poem as a whole after analysing every component. But thls intuition
sometimes encourages factual errors also. In the context, the courtesan's
target rival is the man's wife. HIS lmpl~cltobedience to h ~ sw ~ f e ,rather
"onl)" to his wife, injures and hence infuriates her
H e 1s his wife's
"mirror image". But A K.Ramanujan3s version c l a ~ m sthe man to be a slave
s
not only to his wife but also to the "others" in h ~ house.
According to his English rendering,
Now, back in his house,
when others raise their h a n d s
a n d feet, h e will raise his too.
( I t a l ~ c snot In original)
Her verbal attack is very venomous In the last word of the original.
But, A . K . Ramanujan adds an adjective of affection to the man's son's
mother in his rendering.
like a doll
in a m i r r o r
he will shadow
every last wish
of his son's dear mother
(Italics not in original)
Malice or mischief. the motive behind the choicc o f t h ~ sword is not
clear. Nonetheless, it does distort dangerously the emotion meant to be
c o m e y e d in the original, from one of wounded pride to an Impotent
irritation. A.K.Ramanujan's mlssing the tone of the ur~pporu/is conspicuous
In h ~ commentary
s
for the poem In 'Afterword' of The Interior Landscaoe.
He states.
By comparing herself with the mango, the concubine is
reproaching herself for being accessible The last l ~ n ealso
contrasts his carefree cavalier treatment of her with the tightk n ~ tfamily in which he is now hemmed (P.1 10)
KUR UNTOKAZ 1 8
Verse 18 of K u r u n ~ o k ais~"Her friend's advice to the man", after
one of his nocturnal
visits, entreating
him to arrange for an early marriage
with the girl. The friend of the h e r o ~ n eholds a very responslbie posllion In
the poems of akam literature, as she guides and guards the h e r o ~ n e
providing an emotional anchorage and intellectual companionship. Her
prime concern is always for the physical safety and mental peace of the girl
In t h ~ sverse, the poet Kapilar employs a strlking uilurai to describe
the insensitive, complacent temperament of the man
He hails from the
mountam slopes, where the jackfruit tree bears fruits very close to its
roots, and it is well protected by a bamboo hedge
But the predicament of
the g ~ r lI S in total contrast to thls. No one can really assess the intensity of
the acute agony she undergoes. Like a fully ripe jackfru~t that hangs
precariously from a slender branch, she is weighed down by her evergrowlng love for this man.
Her life is too frail to contain thls heavy
cmotlon. Hence, the situation demands an immediate actlon from the hero In
arranging
h ~ marriage
s
w ~ l hher at the earl~est.
The u//<rai of this poem focusses our attention on the reason for the
man's complacency. In h ~ land,
s
he is used to seelnp the jackfru~tsdoubly
secure - on the one hand they enjoy the protection offered by the fence of
bamboo and on the other, as they grow so close to the root and thereby to
the ground, they will not suffer any damage due to falling. The simile
employed In the second half of the poem b r ~ n g s11; tlie total contrastive
context In which the g ~ r lI S left to battle alone as she
the o f f e n s ~ \ egossip of the people
IS
defenceless against
Her love In a b u n d ~ n c ethreatens to
sever the very chord of her life. She 1s l ~ k ea " g ~ a n t "f r u ~ tsuspended
per~louslyon a u,eak stem
vCral veli verkkdt palsvin
cAragdfa cevviyai y f k u m a t i
y j r a k t u arinticicdr* clra!
c i ~ uk o K u p perurnpaJan tfinkiyankival
uyir tavacci[itu k l m a m d perite
O n deep observation, o n e can always single out the word from the
verse that acts a s a n axis o n whlch the complete poem revolves. In this
poem the key word happens to be an insignificant looking relative pronoun
"that"
-
aktu. In the context, the tone o f the friend is o n e o f urgency and
alarm, a n d w ~ t ha vehemence s h e induces the man to act ~ m m e d i a t e l ya s
there
IS
virtually n o time to spare.
It i s expected o f the translators to capture the anxiety a u d ~ b l eIn the
tonc of the f r ~ e n d ,and hence the key word "that" requlres due neightage.
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden, K.S.Srinivasan and A K . Ramanujan have
translated t h ~ spoem. The version o f K.S.Sr1nlvasa.n is in one s ~ i n p l eshorr
stanza, while Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand Ludden and A K Ranlanujan have
d ~ v l d e dthe poem into t n o parts according to the rheroric used in the
o r i g ~ n a l . Both have used the technique of lndentlng
,i
few lines specifically
to transport the emotion conveyed in the original. Sometlrnes the silence
sandwiched In between the words may suggest the subtlest shade of
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden's \ersion of the i , / / u g i of the poem
has deliberately shifted the focal polnt of the image from the i n s e n s ~ t i \ ~ ~ y
of the m a n t o the extreme sweetness of the jackfrult and the young bamboo
fence
0 m a n of sloping hills
w h e r e t h e sweetest j a c k f r u i t g r o w s
by t h e r o o t of t h e tree,
fenced in b y y o u n g b a m b o o :
T h e superlative adjective '!sweetestu, and the qualifier "young" are
nowhere suggested in t h e original.
'
VFral vF/i means a bamboo hedge and
v i r k f l t p a l d " refers t o a particular type of jackfruit tree that bears fruits
closer to the root, thereby minimising injury to the fruit even in the case of
an a c c ~ d e n t a lfall. Both the phrases spot light only the safety enjoyed by the
f r u ~ tthat grows in his land, and not t o its sweetness
Hcnce the message
of the u l l g r a i is totally lost In Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand L u d d e n ' s version.
The u / l u r a i i s followed b y a request from her friend
-
"rerri:j~aii i k u n ~ a i i "-
meanlng "be good to her". Shanmugam P l l l a ~and L u d d e n ' s translation of
this request reads "be klnd to her!". T h e irrelevant exclamation mark at the
end o f the sentence completes the damage d o n e to the s p ~ r o~ ft the ul/u-rui
that started in the previous line with the s h i f t ~ n gof the s i g n ~ f i c a n c e The
c h o ~ c eo f the word "kind" is also not appropriate In the g i \ e n context
because "kindness" need not always mean "goodness".
In t h e simile Shanmugam Plllal and Ludden have used the a d j e c t ~ \ c
"huge" t o denote the big size o f the fruit and "tiny" to suggest the
slenderness of the stem that carries the frult
The orlglnal uses words
"c~(.u"and "perun~"which d o literally mean "tlny" and "huge". But the
context warrants a better choice of words that would suggest the danger
implled through these contrastive q u a l ~ f i e r s The last llne of the o r i g ~ n a l
urges ~ m m e d i a c yof action on the part of the hero, because no one but him
can be aware of "that" (akru) condition o r state which the girl is in.
unfortunately, the version of Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden merely puts
forth a lacklustre question
W h o knows w h a t a state she is in?
thus f a ~ l ~ ntog echo the tone of exlgency In the o r ~ g i n a l
K S S r i n l ~ a s a n ' sverslon makes a dull renderlng of the ui/u-rai
0 m a n f r o m hilly t r a c t
-
w h e r e jack-trees thrive
along t h e b a m b o o hedge
-
Though he uses the verb "thrive" to suggest the safety enjoyed by the
jackfruit in the man's land, the effect is one of inadequacy and
incompleteness
His verslon uses the word "good" u n l ~ k e"klnd" found in
Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand Ludden's transldt~on
d o be good to her, quick.
for, who can tell?
Through the word "quick" K.S.Srln~\asantries to capture the
compelling nature of the problem in hand, but unfortunately, he too
overlooks the hint given by the friend In the original, referr~ngto "that"
state of the girl He seems to be satisfied with thc simple question
suggesting helplessness rather than insistence
His renderlng of the slmilr
reads better than that of Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden because of the
appropriateness shown In the choice of certain words
"giant" fruit that hangs from stem "so thin"
Thc girl
IS
l ~ k ea
The uord " g ~ a n t "expresses
more completely the d~fferencebetween the normal (huge) and the
alarmingly abnormal (giant) nature of growth, obvious In the girl's love for
the man. K.S.Srinivasan continues to carry the effect thus created, 1111the
end of the poem
h e r love does weigh;
b u t life is weak !
"Weigh" carries completely the burden of the " g ~ a n t "l r u ~ t
A.K.Ramanujan in his version uses the word "almost" to Indicate the
nearness of the fruit to the roots of the tree, thus capluring the sense o f
securlty ensured to the fruit in the original.
0 m a n of t h e mountain slopes
where the jackfruit tree has fruit almost on its roots
with the small live b a m b o o for its fences
By translating vSra1 vSlias "the small live bamboo for its fences". he has
suggested that the tree has a bamboo hedge that had grown naturally around
11. The or~ginaldoes not make any suggestion to the bamboo b e ~ n g"small"
and " l ~ v e " But 1yer In his commentary for the phrase " v i r a / v F / i " says,
" c ~ u r n ~ i n n k r l i k i yka~ / ~ ' S l ~ y a ~ y u t a and
i y a "these words when translated do
mean "the small l ~ v ebamboo for its fence". By translating the commentary
and not the text, A.K.Ramanujan has shifted the signilicance from the
u l l g r a ~to the unwarranted details
In the next two lines, A.K.Ramanujan has cxpla~nedwhat has been
just h ~ n t e dupon by the friend. The poet in him m ~ g h thave lnsunctibely
felt the danger of incompleteness that would go u i t h a simple request like.
"be good to her", Instead of abandoning the verse at the mercy o f
madequate words conveying an incomplete meaning, he has opted to err on
, use the forbidden tool of "explanation"
the right s ~ d e to
be good of thoughts a n d think of m a r r i a g e
No o n e knows of her state
The first sentence of the above quoted passage has expressed completely
what the irlend had in her mind, pressurlsing him to ponder o \ e r an early
marriage, but A.K.Ramanujan too has mlssed the word "akiu"
"Explanatton" is a double-edged weapon that could make or mar a
poem
While translating the simile, A.K.Ramanujan has fallen prey to this
weapon. The simile in the original does not group the girl along w ~ t h
ankbody else who suffers a s i m ~ l a rpredicament. The word " c i r a f "In the
third llne of the orlginal reiers to just the l i ~ l l ys ~ d e She is specifically
compared to "a" giant fruit suspended dangerously from "a" slender bough.
A.K.Ramanujan re:iders irrelevant explanations to the uord "cdrffi".
thus rulning the rare beauty o f a striking s l n ~ i l ecompletely
S h e is like those other trees o n the slopec.
their giant jacks hanging
f r o m slender boughs
(Itallcs liot In orlglnal)
These lines do suggest a plurality in the compar~sonik111ch 1s tolally absent
In the o r i g ~ n a l
Yet the concluding lines of A.K.Ramanujan's v c r s ~ o n ,
her b r e a t h i s short,
a n d h e r love great beyond bearing
s a n c t ~ o nthe fullest j u s t ~ c eto the a n x ~ o u stone rnalnta~nedIn the or~glnal
"Uyir" in the original does not mean lust life, but suggests strongly the
endurance o f a person, who has been made to carry tremendous burden,
under stressful c o n d ~ t ~ o n silently.
s,
The friend of the g ~ r lis obviously
desperate when she anxiously urges the man saylng,
uyir tavacckitu k i m a m 6 petite
The phrase " u y i r ravacc~ritu" indicates that they are runnlng short o f time,
and that the situation is one of serious import. A.K.Ramanujan has
captured the sptrit o f this SOS call by adding two words, "beyond bearing"
to sensitlse the man to the situation
KUR UNTOKAI 42
Kuruntokat 42 is what her friend said to the man who was desirous
of meeting the g ~ r lat night. The g ~ r l ' sfriend ~ndlrcctl) informs l i ~ mthat
such clandestine visits may have to be given up in future. The poet
Kapilar uses here a natural phenomenon as a
convenient
backdrop for the
context and the poem employs an ulfu(oi to brlng out the nature of the land
o f the man. He hails from a place, whcrc the waterfall w h ~ c hcascades
down a cavern would declare to the world that there had been a torrential
raln the previous night
Even if the i n i t ~ a ldesire that the man had for thc
eirl should cease, his intense love for the g ~ r land thelr earnest r e l a t ~ o n s h ~ p
should not diminlsh
kdmarnojiva tdyigurn y i m a t t u k
karuvi mdrnajai v i j n f e g a varuvi
vitarakat tiyampu n l t a v e m
to&arpunteyumd n i g v a y i g i p e
The key word o f the poem is "iyampu" that occurs in the third sentence,
which means "to sound, say, utter; iyam sound, word, musical instrument"
(DEDR 398) The torrential rain that came d o n n at midnight r n ~ g h thave
gone totally unnoticed had it not been for the swell in the waterfalls the
next day. The sudden increase in the quantity of the water that rushes
down the crevices of the caverns, does declare loudly that there had been a
rain, the previous night. So the unnoticed downpour had left behind a
noticeable evidence. In the same way, the man who is most desirous of
meeting the girl, invarlably at night may feel that the11 secret relationship is
safely hidden from the world. But, the physical changes that may appear
on the body o f the girl nil1 c e r t a ~ n l ybetray them. by loudly declaring their
lo! r
The word "kdmam" in the original refers only to the physical
attraction and passlon which the man has for the girl at the initial stages of
them love. He is eager to meet her, and the responsible f r ~ e n dof the girl
pollrely refuses to arrange for such meetings. The man may leave the scene
visibly unchanged even after many visits but that w ~ l lnot be the case with
the girl. The girl's friend not only refuses h ~ ma tryst now, but also
suggests that she would not guarantee any more In the future. She is
equally anxious to know if this inability to enjoy clandestine love would
weaken his relationship with the girl. The purpose behlnd the speech of the
friend is to make the man aware of the danger which the girl may run into
if she is not guarded from him in time.
Shanmugam Pillal and Ludden, A.V.Subraman~an,G.L.Hart,
A.K.Ramanu]an and P.h.Appuswamy have translated this piece.
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have taken care to grasp the message
In the u l l ~ p i o the
f original and have succeeded in
conveying
it in their
version too.
0 m a n f r o m t h e land
where a waterfall
in t h e cleft of a mountain
declares t h a t a g r e a t rain
fell in torrents
last night:
The verb 'declares' is very appropriate to the context. The tone of
the friend is one o f apprehension and doubt throughout the poem, as she
IS
apprehensive o f a s ~ m ~ l "loud
ar
dzclarat~on"of the l o \ e a f f a ~ rb e t ~ e e nthe
man and the g ~ r land doubtful if the relationship would n e a r out once the
passion ceases
The anxiety expressed In her bolce
IS
dudlble in the
translated version also
A . V Subramanian's version of the u//u.roi is very crouded and wordy
and reads an explanation rather than a translation
Chieftain, on t h e slopes of your hill
Waterfalls cascade down with a roar
T h a t echoes to t h e high heavens long a f t e r
T h e rains of t h e night have ceased to be.
H e r heart's involvement with you shall
Flourish even if you do not meet!
Amidst the unnecessary verbiage, the spirit of the poem is totally lost and
his choice of the word, "echo" to denote "ryampu" also fails to convey the
t
while he
correct meaning. The following lines are the ~ r r e l e ~ a nadditions
attempts to explatn the implicit comparison:
H e r love shall live on undiminished
Unnourished by nightly tryst.
Hart's cholce of the word "desire" to denote "kdmam" 1s quite
appropriate to the context. Both "passion" and " d e s ~ r e "refer only to the
physical aspect of love and that is what is meant in the o r ~ g i n a l . But Hart
has conlpletely lost the meaning of the ulli+rat when he refers to the man as
one from
.... where a great midnight rain beats down
with t h u n d e r a n d lightning
a n d makes a waterfall resound through a cave,
The ortglnal does not stress the light and sound effects that accompany a
"great midnight r a ~ n "but the unexpected abundance in the quantlty of water
which falls down announcing the occurrence of the ralii to the uorld that
was unaware of it. The lapse o n the part of the translalor proves too dear.
because the verslon not only looks pale but also reads wrong
A.K.Ramanujan's version refers to the "morn~nguaterfalls n ~ a k ~ n g
music in the caverns" and his translat~onreads llke a passage glorifying the
scenic beauty of a hill resort The waterfall mentioned in the orig~nalhas
been assigned a specific duty o f m a k ~ n ga very vltai and serious
announcement.
E v e n if passion s h o u l d pass,
0 m a n o f t h e hills
where
a f t e r t h e long t e m p e s t u o u s r a i n s
of n i g h t
t h e m o r n i n g ' s waterfalls
m a k e music in t b e caverns,
would o u r l o ~ ealso pass
with t h e passion ?
T h e cankam poets can never be accused of empty verbiage and a sounding
cataract was not ~ n t r o d u c e dby Kapilar In the poem to "make music" but to
"make known" something significant
It is s o unfortunate that such a
brilliant plece of verse, should die an ignoble death under the banner of
"translation"
P K Appuskarny's version reads clumsy, "full of sound and fury,
s i g n i f y ~ n gnothing"
0 Chief of t h a t f a i r l a n d
W h e r e r o a r i n g waterfalls echo
I n t h e d a r k a n d m i d d l e night
F r o m within rocky clefts a n d caves
Long after t h e pouring rain
A r m e d with t h u n d e r a n d lightning
H a d c o m e d o w n in heavg t o r r e n t s !
The nature of the ram and the manner in which ~t occurred d o not matter as
much as the e v ~ d e n c eit had unknowingly ieft behind. He uses lots of
words to have the least Impact on the reader
KUR UNTOKAZ 112
Kurunfokai 112 1s what the girl s a ~ dto her frlend. in a tone of
desolation and d e s p a ~ r ,when her man had delayed long in arranging for
rhelr marriage. Her love for the man and rheir relationship is no longer a
secret as there is already enough of evil g o s s ~ paround to unnerve her but
she is still unsure of what her next move should be
If she allows the
scandalous words to disturb and scare her, she should let her passlon
wither away. If she gives up her love for the man, she will be left behlnd
with only shame and this helpless state fills her with intense remorse and
self-pity
Her feminine charm, whlch was relished by her man once, has
become her cause of worry as h e does not seem to show any haste in
arranging
for an early marriage and she too cannot go back to the physical
and mental state in which she was before she came to know him.
The poet of this verse, xlattur Kilar employs an effective simile to
portray the pitiable predicament of this girl
In her own words, she
compares her feminin~tyconsumed by the man, to a branch broken from a
trce by a bull elephant. The branch has been torn away from the tree and
left suspended, hanging from a flimsy fibre
IS
The broken branch has not yet
touched the ground. The powerful emotion condensed w:tliln a compact
comparison of seven words, is highly suggestlbc of the g ~ r l ' svulnerdble
condit~on I t also indicates the ~ m p o s s ~ b ~of
l ~any
t y complete recover).
from her present state and the situatloo could be sabed on14 if the
~rresponsibleman shows any sign of sensitivity
kauvai yaficir k i m a m eykkum
ellara vitigC ullatu n i n e
p e r u n k a l b u v i n k a murintu nilampatia
ndrutai ociyil arrC
kan ticip tdliyavar un ta eg nalagC
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden, A.V.Subramanian, A.K.Ramanujan
and K.S.Srinivasan have translated this verse. The f ~ r s ttwo lines of the
orlginal describe the girl's dilemma in taklng a decision, Immersed in
sorrow, she wonders if she should let her passton fade away fearing the
gossip. The original uses the word "kauvar" to mean scandalous talk. If
she attempts to give up her love to put an end to the gossip only shame
will be her share of the bargain.
All the four translators have succeeded in echoing the agonislng
uneasiness felt by the girl. A.K.Ramanujan and A.\.'.Subramanian have
translated "kauvai" as "scandal" and Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand Ludden have
chosen a milder word "gosstp". Though both the words do sound appropriate
in the gtven context, "scandal"
'kiiu>ai"on the gtrl
IS
more correct whtle assessllig the impact of
"Scandal" 1s more rulnous th3n "goss~p"and the former
can drtve a person to take drastic decisions. K S Srln~vnsan'smakes light of
the sttuation by uslng the phrase "wagglng tongues" to denote "kuuvai"
The phrase " e l arc vlirn8'' in the second l ~ n eof the orig~nalmeans
"to stop this wicked talk". Shanmugam Ptllat and Ludden ha,e translated
" e l " as "abuse", A.V.Subramanlan as "calumny" and A.K.Ramanujan as
"dlrty talk". A.K.Ramanujan's phrase sounds odd, because the usage is not
just a contemporary one, but also one that belongs to a "cit~fied"register.
Though K.S.Srlnivasan's verslon does not habe a litcral translattoll for the
word, " e l " , it reads well as ~t has retained the sense successfully.
T h e original verse employs an astonishing economy in the use o f
words to express effectively the desolate state o f the girl. The powerful
simile utilizes seven words to paint a vivid verbal picture.
perurikaJku vanka murintu nilam patla
nZrutai ociyil
These words fathom the pathos in the present state o f the girl, who is like a
branch broken by a bull elephant. The branch that has been twlsted away
from the tree has not yet fallen, but is desperately c l l n g ~ n gon to the tree
with the help o f its flimsy fibre. Her physical self resembles this broken
branch after her having allowed the man to enjoy her charm. "avar unta en
nulag?"
is the finishing phrase of the poem, where "na/ag" specifically
refers to the virgin self of the g ~ r l .
It is the typical tralt of the bull elephant to twist ~ t strunk round a
leafy branch of a tree, breaking the boughs thoughtlessly to feed on the
foliage, and there are ample occasions when the bull elephant would indulge
l the
In t h ~ sdestructive "sport" for no s p e c ~ f i creason. The o r ~ g ~ n auses
u o r d "perunkaiiru" to refer to the bull elephant
Though the d ~ c t ~ o n a r ~ c s
do not eliminate the allowance to translate 'ka/(ru" as "elephant", lirernry
usage and the given context refer to only a huge male elephant5 Tamil
l ~ t e r a r ylanguage has a s p e c ~ f i cterm
"prlt"
to denote the female e ~ e p h a n t . ~
The man in the poem is compared to the male elephant for both his physical
strength and reckless behaviour.
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have translated the term "perumkal~m"
merely as "a huge elephant" ignoring the reference to the sex of the beast. Words
in the onginal verse are dynamic and decisive, al~veand accurate and "ka(,rd' in
the orlglnal
IS
not an absent minded choice of AIatNr &far, who directly hits at
the nature of a bull elephant, and its capacity to cause an Irreparable damage to the
tree that had satisfied its hunger.
A.V Subramanian and A.K. Ramanujan have also committed the
same grave error. It is rather painful to note that they have carelessly
dropped even the vital adjective "perum" and have merely said "an
elephant". Fortunately for the original, all the three have retained the
s~gnificanceof the phrase "nrilutaioctyil' by translating it as "fibrous bark"
and "fiber of the bark"
W h ~ l etranslating a simile (that too like the one in the present verse),
the translator should remain well guarded against amb~guity,but
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden and A V.Subran?anian habe fa~ledmiserabl?
in tackling this tricky problem.
In a cornplaln~ngtone the girl in Shanmugam Pilla~and Ludden's
kcrsion goes on to compare herself filth a broken brancli
it is like a branch
with fibrous bark,
broken by a huge elephant
that bent it low,
h u t still not fallen to the ground
"That" in the fourth line refers to the "huge elephant" and " ~ t "In the same
llne Indicates the broken bough and so far, the translation
IS
clear. But In
the last llne, the reader 1s left t a make hls own choice between "that" and
"it" and wonders "what" has still not fallen to the ground
This dangerous ambiguity 1s optimal in A.V.Subraman~an'sversion
A striking simile that should have effortlessly evoked sympathy for the girl
succeeds in producing only a comic effect
The rendering reads thus :
Look, even like t h e b r a n c h
B r o k e n by a n elephant,
standing a t a n angle
Not touching the g r o u n d below,
N i t h t h e fibrous b a r k showing
4 r e m y feminine graces
Devoured by the chieftain !
W ~ t hthe punctuation marks playing terrlble mischief, one gets the picture
not of a broken branch dangling helplessly, but only that of an elephant
standing at an angle, not touching the ground below, with the fibrous bark
showlng! The word "devoured" makes the chleftain look a fam~shed
A.K. Rarnanujan, while saving his v e r s ~ o nfrom this casualty, falls a
victim to verbosity, and hence the rendering reads l ~ h ean elaborate
commentary on the s i m ~ l e :
..... is now like a branch half broken
by an elephant,
bent, not yet fallen to t h e ground,
Still attached to t h e mother tree
by the fiber of its b a r k .
There is also a special reference to "the mother tree" in
A.K.Ramanujan's version, which is not to be found In the original.
K.S.Srinivasan seems to be the only translator who has succeeded in
capturing the anguished tone of the girl in his r e n d e r ~ n g As mentioned
e a r l ~ e r ,he has not done a word-by-word translation. There are one or t h o
words which have been left untranslated
But he has taken adequate care in
choosing the most eloquent words that would speak for those that were
silenced. His version, like the original is concise and compact
Look, my friend,
my v i r t u e which he slipped
dangles, like a twisted bough
t o r n a p a r t by e l e p h a n t male.
The word "dangles" takes care of the phrase "ritlampatid' of the original
whlch means "not yet fallen to the ground"
The phrase "taisted bough"
IS
the most appropriate expression, for it does not just stop w ~ t htranslating
the word "murlnru" but clearly e m p h a s ~ s e sthe t y p ~ c a lmay In which a
"kai[ruUwould break a bough; the expression "torn apart"
IS
suggestive of
the fibrous nature of the object that is subjected to t h ~ streatment. Had the
concluding words of the verse been "an elephant male" or "a tnale elephant"
it would have read better, yet the words "elephant male" guarantee hls
success
KUR UNTOKAZ 36
In Kuruntokai, there are plenteous
occasions
where the g ~ r l ' smental
f o r t ~ t u d esurfaces to offer confidence and courage to tier anxious friend
regarding the loyalty of the man. The g ~ r l ,u ~ t ha dauntless splrlt, would
console her f r ~ e n dnot to grieve over the man's delay In getting married
She would hide the disquietude o f her own troubled heart and put on a
brave front, just to quell her friend's apprehensions
K u r u n t o k a i 36 portrays one such occaston u here the girl assuages
her agitated Friend. The poem is by Paranar, who employs an effective
implicit comparison, ullgrai, to induce courage in the mind of the friend.
s
The man has made inviolable promises to assure the glrl of h ~ deep
affection for her and as he held her in his arms he made a solemn vow that
he would abide in her heart eternally and uould not bear to ltve uithout
her. He hails from a land where the mrinaicreeper used to seek support by
c l i n g ~ n gonto a sleeping elephant. though a s o l ~ dboulder uould ile close
by
I t is strange that the vine should choose a moving object for a
permanent support lgnortng the access to the an immo\eable rock that
mould offer a more permanent and rellable support to the creeper
turuka layalatu m i n a i m i k k o t i
tuAcu kali~ivarurikupra n i t a p
neficu k a l a p i k a niyaleli y i p e c a
n a p d n mananta Aiprai rnarravap
tivi va~ci~amurattatu
ndyd t d j i n i vayipinC
~
The glrl's compartson bears a hldden refercnce to hcr choice of the
man who has now been absent long enough to cause anxicty
She has taken
a blg rtsk by maktng this choice and tt is she who should grteve as the
situation suggests. If there 1s yet another soul who should feel equally
heavy at heart, it is none but the man who made boastful promises. His
consctence bore evtdence to all that he said on thc day o f thetr union The
girl expresses her concern for the grief of her friend and consoles her that
s h e need not feel sad. T h e essence of the of the original 1s the reference to
the cholce m a d e by the mdnal creeper, because
11 I S
suggestive of the fdct
that the vine will have t o suffer w ~ t b o u ta solid support. once the elephant
m o v e s away. Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand Ludden, K . S Srlnivasan and
A.K.Ramanujan have translated t h ~ sverse.
Shanmugam Pillai and Luddetl h a ~ etranslated thls i m p l l c ~ t
comparison without caring for the suggestion. The ~ / / i < r uI/S rightly called a
veiled
comparison
because it demands a great deal o i lntuitlon and mental
agility on the part of the reader to grasp the meaning o f the seemingly
unrelated d e s c r l p t ~ o nof the man's land and 11s s p e c i f ~ cnature. Shanmugam
Pillai and Ludden have made no effort to make even a passlng reference to
t h e significance o f the specific choice made by the creeper. T h e m a n In the
version I S ,
from t h e hilly l a n d
w h e r e a minai v i n e clings
to an e l e p h a n t t h a t sleeps
by a bolder ( S I C )
The cholce of the word "boulder" to refer to " f r ( l u k u / " is \.er). appropriate
because a boulder is a large stone that has been rounded by water or
weather. T h e word i s suggestive of the reason behind the mistaken cholce
m a d e by the creeper. B u t unfortunately the appropriateness of the choice
has been left completely unused. l r o n ~ c a i l y ,the commentary that follows
Shanmugam P ~ l l a land Ludden's translation speaks at length about the
" m ~ s t a k e "on the part of the vlne
A.K.Ramanujan's version gives a very murky plcture o f a vivid
image presented in the original. The translator glves a wrong interpretat~on
to the ullu-rar by statlng that
t h e m d n a i creeper t h a t usual(r. s p r a w l s
on large round stones
sometimes takes t o a sleeping elephant.
(Itallcs not in the original)
The ordginal does nowhere make any reference to "the usual
behavlour" and "the s p e c ~ a lhehaviour" of a creeper
Vor does the vine
consciously search for a "large round stone". Such explanatory phrases not
only dlstort the
meaning
of the l m p l ~ c l tcomparison but also mutllate the
purpose behlnd employing such highly perfected litcrary techniques.
Through Kurunrokuzpoenis, one understands ho\\ the r a n k a m poets
had repeatedly put their poetic skills to the test. They had never accepted
the luxury of using a larger canvas to palnt a symbolic verbal plcture. This
inimitable style can be both brain-teaslng and exasperating ~f clarity In
comprehension is wanting.
K S.Srtnlvasan has a c h ~ e v e dsuccess in glvlng a s~gnlficantco~npact
form to his verslon, after sacrificing a few aspects found In the original
He has succeeded rn retaining the spirit o f lhc u l / u j a / in lhis transiation.
though the impllcit comparison stands aloof and a&d.) from the rest of the
poem, bearing no relatlonsh~pto the rest o f the speech made by the girl
The orlginal is o f one long sentence made of Images expressing a single
powerful emotion
The technique used In the original to link the i r / f q a i
with the rest of the poem is to m a k e the u / / u / a i suggest t h e salient feature
o f t h e man's land.
K.S.Srinivasan in his translation misses to give this vital link. T h e
verslon does not bear any evldence to denote that the hero halls from a hilly
place where the manai creeper opts for an elephant instead o f a boulder a s a
support
T h e c r e e p e r seeks t o hold
t h e e l e p h a n t c u b asleep
t h o u g h solid r o c k lies beside
l l r should bc a salld rock i
T h e verb "seek" is highly appropriate in suggesttng a willing option made
by the creeper and the phrase "elephant cub" is suggestive o f the boulder
that lies beside. T h e original makes a reference to only "kaiiru" that means
"an elephant'' and there is no specific mention about the young one of an
elephant But the a l l o u a n c e taken by the translator does not tamper u i t h the
splrit o f the poem In anyway It rather helps In glving a more picturesque
verslon of the original. T h e word "though" succeeds in rendering the desired
effect by c o m p l e t ~ n gthe message partially suggested by the verb "seek" that
occurs in the first line. The seemingly redundant a d j e c t ~ v e"solid" has a
well-defined purpose. T h e creeper has Ignored a solid suppor! and has
chosen a movable object instead.
KURUNTOKAI 119
Kuruntoka~heroes are men of tremendous p h y s ~ c a imight and mental
srainina
T h e akant man stands for intellect, nobilily and courage
(_To/k@pp~yurn
'Poruiurikdram' cJrr~mrn299). h h i c h form the core of his
character and the essence o f h ~ ds y n a m ~ cpersonality. H e r o ~ ceffort,
purposive activity and concern t o fulfill worldly o b l i g a t ~ o n slike seeking
s
m a s c u l ~ n eq u a l ~ t i e s . But the same man has an
fortune are h ~ Inherent
;motional
s ~ d etoo, with passionate craving and I ~ m i t l e s slove for a woman
Thus the &ugroo hero is a c o n f l ~ c t ~ ncgo m b ~ n a t ~ oof
l l "the man" and
"the lover", the former insistent on his m a t e r ~ a lmlsslons and t h e latter
~ m m e r s e din emotional experiences
Kurunrokai 119 by t h e poet Catti Natanar, d e s c r ~ b e sthe emotions of
the hero, experienced in the initial stages of h ~ evolution
s
from "the man"
into "the lover". T h e poem is what the man said after his spontaneous
sexual union with the glrl.'
H i s rneetlng i v ~ t hthe g ~ r lbecomes a happy
prologue to a passionate r e l a t ~ o n s h ~that
p follows. He has bcen leading an
unchcched and unchallenged l ~ f es o long. but after his meeting the girl,
n o t ~ c e a b l echanges have occurred in h ~ psyche
s
which a s t o n ~ s hh ~ m
~ m m e n s e l y Till now, he w a s unaware that the seemingly u,eak and t ~ r n ~ d
can also evert tremendous emotional pressure on the strong and n l ~ g h t y .
T h ~ sb e u , ~ l d e r ~ nexperience
g
bewitches him none the less, and he expresses
h ~ sweet
s
s u f f e r ~ n gto h ~ isn q u ~ r i n gfriend
c i ~ u v e laravin
l
avvarikkurulai
k i c a ~ l n a anarikiyianku
i
ilaiyaval muIaivll eyijxal
vajaiyutaik kaiyal em anankiyoIP
T h e poem uses a forcible s ~ m ~ to
l e portray the c o n d ~ t ~ oofn the man's
e x c ~ t e dpassionate self. Just like the mighty jungle elephant that was
subdued by the striped young one of a small white snake, he too has been
conquered by a young girl with sparkling teeth and banyled wrists.
The simile is appropriate to the context in more than one sense. The
cherished pride o f the man was very much akin to that of the jungle
elephant which had never been r~valledby anyone, even by those of equal
might
But in the most unguarded moment, rhe elephant was overpowered
by a young snake which by its venomous blte had left the mammoth
writhing in pain. The man is also in a similar state of mind after having
been smitten by the youthful charm of the girl. He is overwhelmed by his
love for her and he complains that she torments him
Shanmugam P i l l a ~and Ludden, A.K.Ramanu~an,P.N.Appuswamy and
M.L.Thangappa have translated t h ~ ssmall poem
cjruvel l a r a v i ~avvarikkurulai
k8aa y2gai anarikiydanku
The simlle In the original 1s descript~veo f the size and colour of the adult
snake whose striped young one is as polsonous as its parent. The smallness
of size and s ~ l v e r yshade help the snake, as a convenient camouflage to
assault unnoticed. The original stresses the contrast between the "kurulai"
(the young one) and the " k @ ~y@cal'
a
in both their stature and nature. This
vital contrast adds depth and dimension to the ~nexpiicablesuffering of the
man.
b
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have done a crlsp and clean ~ o of
translating the original in the most convincing way, g ~ v i n gdue weightage to
the words in the original, to build up a cumulative thrust
J u s t like the striped young
of t h e small white snake
torment the forest elephant..
The word " a v v a r ~ "has been missed, and the version would have read better
wlth the ~ncluslonof that word whlch means "beautifully striped"
A K.Ramanujan's version does not make any d ~ s t ~ n c t ~betueen
on
the
adult snake and its young one. The original makes t h ~ sdistinction to
augment the contrast between the victor and vanquished. A.K.Ramanujan
has not g ~ v e nany importance to the word " k u r u l u i ' , Hence his translation,
As a little white snake
with lovely stripes on its young bod)
troubles the young elephant
lacks vigour and vitality and "llttle" need not necessartly mean "young" but
may merely refer to anything small in stature
P N.Appuswamy3s rendering of the simlle reads pleonast~cu'lth
unwanted descriptions
T h e slender youngling
Of the silver-snake
I s striped in beauty:
Yet it convulses with pain
T h e lordly elephant
T h a t roams the wild
M.L.Thangappa's translation has not adhered to the descr~ptlonsof
the snake as ment~onedin the original, and the translator seems to habe
sacrificed the spirit of the strlking simile to achieve a concise form
Even as the little snake
strikes a t the mighty elephant
and fells him
The word used by the man In the original to denote the nature of the
a f f l ~ c t ~ ocaused
n
by both the young snake and the young girl IS, ananku (V)
w h ~ c hmeans "to suffer, be d~stressed,be slain, to a f f l ~ c t ;n pain, afflict~on,
k~lling;"(DEDR 56(b)). This keyword has been translared In four
lnterest~nglydifferent ways, according to the translators' inference of the
Intensity of suffering Implied by the word.
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have used the word "torment" to
suggest the severity while A.K.Ramanujan has made use of a weaker
equivalent
-
"trouble". P.N.Appuswamy's c h o ~ c eis "convulse" whereas
M.L Thangappa has settled for "fell".
lyengar makes an explicit reference ro the word "ananku" (V) in his
comnientary for this poem. The word means "afflict~on"but In this context,
11 means
' a f f l ~ c t ~ othrough
n
touch", thus m a k ~ nthe s~milaritybetween the
snake and girl accurate and striking.8
The cho~cemade by Shanmugam P ~ l l aand
~ Ludden 1s more appropriate
than that of others because "torment" communicates completely the paln suggested
through the orig~nal. A.KRamanujan's optlon "trouble", sounds very negatlve
without a positive qualifier. "Convulses" used by P.N.Appuswamy
IS
too l~teraland
jerky, glvlng more Importance to the seizure and spasm caused by a snake bite
than the emotional turbulence induced by the love of a g ~ r l Though "fell" is
suggestive of the absolute defeat of the might of the beast and p r ~ d eof the man, it
rs more appropnate to fell a tree and an enemy, than a lover.
The second half of the poem describes the girl who is responsible for
the man's suffering with special reference to certain aspects of her
appearance. This description though, highly compact and crisp, follows a
logical pattern in accordance with the sequence of certain actions that
culminated In the emotional experience of physical unlon of the lovers. The
man says that the girl was young
sprouted teeth that sparkled
- "ilaiyuvul" -
that she had a set of
- "mulai v d ey(r/alU(of which
he had a
glimpse when she indicated to him her willingness through a smile); and
that she had bangled wrlsts
- " volai utui kkaiyul"
(of which he came to
knon during their ~ n i o n ) . ~
"iluiyu~,al'has been translated by A.K Ramanujan and
P.N Appuswamy as "this slip of a girl" and "this young slip of a girl"
respect~vely. Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden term her "boung girl" and
M L Thangappa uses the word "damsel". A11 these choices have succeeded
in capturing the sense of the or~glnal.
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden's version has rendered
mu la^ rdl
eyi<rul' as "with bright teeth like tender sprouts" and In the commentary
that follows this rendering, they repeatedly refer lo "sprouts" in the noun
form. "She may be tender and innocent, with tiny teeth that resemble
sprouts ....Her teeth are like sprouts in that they are young and pointed, like
leaves when sprouting."10
A.K.Ramanujan's version of this poem is found in both The Interior
lands can^ and
Poems of Love and War and he calls this poem (along with
ten others) a revised version of translation from The Interior ~ a n d s c a a e . "
In the 'Afterword' of The Interior L a n d s c a ~ e ,he makes a passing reference
to this poem while discussing the width and range of the man's imagery
according to literary conventions.12 "The revlsed version of the translation"
of t h ~ spoem has a revis~onmade in its format only. In both the versions,
'
he has translated the phrase ' m u l a r v f l e y ~ r a l as
h e r teeth like sprouts of new rice.
Scholars like Iyengar, Arankanar and Somasundaranar have expla~ned
the term mul la^" as a verb meanlng "to grow" or "to sprout" and nowhere
In
the commentary do they mention the use of " m u l a i " as a noun, meaning
"sprout", the germinated seed.13 Though according to Pattum Tokaivum and
Kalaka Tamil Akarathi " m u l a i " may be used as a noun. the context in the
poem, warrants " m u l a i " to be used only as a verb
U V.Caminata Iyer, in his commentary for the poem, has explained
the phrase " m u l a i v@ eyicra!' as "the girl with teeth that shines like
a
bulrush shoot" ( n d n r t l m u l a i y a r ~ p d g ~ roLi)ulaiyap&a/u~
uta~yavalum),an
explanation that is extremely unique. T h ~ sexplanation should have been
responsible for P.N.Appuswamy's version,
with teeth t h a t gleam like bulrush shoots.
A study of the various possible meanlngs for the word rnuiai%11Ibe a
valuable intellectual exercise.14
The phrase " va/oi uraik kaiyal" has been given a thoroughly wrong
significance by A.K.Ramanujan and P.N.Appuswamy who have translated it
as " her wrists stacked with bangles" and "rows of golden bangles that
shine upon her slender arms" respectively
According to akom conventions, as has been mentioned elsewhere,
-
ur~pporui the human element is the most vital aspect. There are poems
where karu (native element) and mutal (the first element) may be found
missing. But n o akam poem can be written withour the uripporu/ Emotions
expressed are the most significant facets of an nkam poem
Unfortunately,
by using the phrases and words that are totally absent in the original, the
translator may give the spirit of the original the capital punishment
In the original, the phrase "valai ufaik katjal" is used to suggest the
pliysical intimacy betneen the girl and the man."
M . L Thangappa's
"bangled w r ~ s t s "1s the closest translat~onof the o r ~ g ~ n and
a l " valai", be ~t
single or "stacked", "golden" or of some mean metal, should have had for
the poet of the original, a better purport than being merely ornamental.
KUR UNTOKAZ 127
The girl's friend is an extremely intelligent individual whose astute
nature had almost served as a moral shield for the gullible girl. The
t
wisdom and w ~ t hgreat
friend's speech is always indicative of her w ~ and
sagacity she would tackle the man's falsehood acting as a conscience keeper
whenever he went astray.
K u r u n t o k a ~127, by
0;am Pokiyar, presents the picture of the man
seeking a d m ~ s s i o ninto the girl's house after having been with other women.
Anticipating an emotional showdown, the man sends a messenger ahead to
speak well of him. But the girl's friend w ~ t hconsummate skill sees through
the d e c e ~ tof the messenger and refuses the man admission saylng that the
messenger he sent was a thoroughbred I ~ a r .
kuruku kolak kulitta kentai ayalatu
urukeju tirnarai vd;mukai verljurn
kajaniyam patappaik ksrici yljra
orunic pinan poyyagika
ulla pinarellarn
kaJvar pdlvarni yakapricindrkkC
The poet employs an implicit
comparison
to make the man realise
that no longer can he take the girl for granted, explo~tingher Innocent faith
to satisfy his ends. The man belongs to a prosperous billage e n r ~ c h e dby
k d f i c ~trees and paddy fields where the kenfad fish that had had a narrow
escape from the beak of a heron would dive deep into the water to save its
11fe As it had seen death face to face, it would shudder at the s ~ g h tof
anything that resembles the heron and would swim away in fear on seeing
the white lotus bud. As one of the messengers sent by the man proved a
Ilar, all the women who were left to grieve by the man would take every
messenger for a liar. Hence the man need not expect the girl to be carried
away by his false oaths
The fish that had made a lucky escape from the beak of the heron is
compared to a girl who escaped from falling a prey to the fraudulent speech
of the bard, whlch glorified the-praiseworthy behaviour of the man.I6 This
wisdom gained from a near-death experience has made the fish instinctively
stay away from even an innocent lotus bud as 11 bears a close resemblance
to the head of the heron. In the same way, the girl too would remain
guarded against her man's falsehood. The reference to the kdrici trees and
paddy fields hints that he had taken to ignoble and useless ways in splte of
possessing valuable and worthy things. Straying away from the girl's love
and resorting to terrible falsehood would but leave him blameworthy.
kuruku koJak kulitta kentai ayalatu
urukeju tlmarai v i e mukai verurjm
The shock of the fish would not have been so Intense had 11 d ~ v e dinto the
water on merely seeing a heron approach~ng. Hence Its fear of death is
strong enough for even a white lotus bud to glve it the scare of its life
The poem makes this m ~ x e dfeeling of fear and r e l ~ e fmove from word to
word with ease and grace, that the complete essence is contained t ~ l lthe last
; ~ t h o u tany spill over. The meanlng melts and moves
word of the u / / u / o ~w
until ~t is absorbed absolutely by all the words. As Robert Frost puts ~ t ,
" L ~ k ea piece of ice on a hot stove, the poem must rlde on ~ t own
s
melting.""
Hence m ~ s s i n geven a single word would interfere u i t h the
flow of thought and meaning thereby causing damage to the end-piece
Shanmugam P ~ l l a iand Ludden, A.K.Ramanu~anand A.V.Subramanian
have translated this poem. Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden's commentary
that follows the translated version explalns the nature of the lmplicit
comparison
and the deceitful behaviour of the man and the bard, but the
translated piece fails to make that relevant suggestion in its content. It
reads more like a narration of two actions totally unrelated
W h e r e kentai fish dive deep in a pond
as herons leap at them
a n d they a r e frightened
by bright-coloured lotus nearby
In Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden's translation, the fish have escaped
from the leaping herons and the plural~tysuggested through the pronoun
"then)" and the \ e r b "are" lndlcate a collective experience of a group of fish
-
an unwarranted indication that nullifies the spirit o r the
II//LI.~RI
The
translator might have done thls to relate the exper~enceof the fish w ~ t hthat
of the women who were deserted by the man and fooled by his messenger.
Even In that case, there is an unnecessary shift In the meanlng
The strong fear experienced by the fish
IS
so great that it influences
the fish's immediate and future actions, and as the scare spreads over the
present and the future, the fish does not stop with just di\lng deep but also
stays away from the white lotus bud. The original niakes a very specific
reference to this as "tcimarat v#~mukat". If the fish are "frightened by
bright coloured lotus" (obviously the ones in full bloom), then, the "fear" is
totally unreasonable because a b r ~ g h tcoloured lotus never looks like a
heron
A.K.Ramanujan and A.V.Subramanian ha\c done a comparat~vely
better job. A.K.Ramanujan indents the ullurar to gain better meaning
through the format of the poem and takes adequate care in letting the fish
alone slip from the beak of the heron and not the sense and s p ~ r i tof the
poem. HIS translation,
the small barbus fish
slips sometimes
from the heron's beak
a n d dives into the water
b u t fears ever after
the white b u d of the lotus
(Itallcs not In original)
does contain the ease and grace of the original, though one wonders how the
Kuruntokaipoet could refer to barbus, a fish found "exclusively' along the
western Atlantic coast
Phrases thoughtfully added l ~ k e"some times" and
"ever after" enhance the beauty of the comparison. When A.K Ramanujan
uses a powerful phrase "must seem" one could feel the signif~cancebelng
effortlessly shifted from the exper~enceof the fish to that of the girl and
other %omen. The girl's friend says :
Since one of your minstrels
was a liar,
all your minstrels must seem liars
to the women you abandon
(Italics not In orrginal)
Though A V.SubramanianSs style of translation
18
verbose, the spirit
of the poem is left to some extent unstrained. Unlike the fish in
A K Ramanujan's version that "slips", the f ~ s hin A . V S u b r a m a n ~ a n ' s
rendering, "had managed to wriggle out the beak of the crane", but the
original does not give the credit of the escape to the fish. The form of
the lotus bud is highlighted in A V.Subramanian's verslon also, making
the fear o f the fish justifiable. Yet, it 1s a great p ~ t ythat the terse and
Incisive K u r u n t o k a i p o e m should be translated in a rambling fashion,
leaving the sentences to w o r n their way.
KUR UNTOKAI 325
Poet Nannakaiyar, in Kurunrokoi325 employs an exqutsite metaphor
to describe the extreme grief of the girl who holds her unbecoming
behaviour responsible for her man's leaving her in search of fortune. Her
friend's words of solace make her only more regretful over this selfimposed state of desolat~onand despair. The man has had the habit of
teaslng the girl with hls fake decisions of departure, and on one such
provocative situation she may have asked htm to leave her alone. Her
words of irritation were taken for consent and were gladly c a r r ~ e dout b>
him and now his absence fills her with profound grief
More than the pangs
of separation, what beats her is her own sense of guilt that makes her wish
to know his whereabouts. Her unending sorrow has made her shed such
plent~fultears that the space between her breasts has n o u become a great
pond where the herons look for prey. This briil~antpiece has been translated
by Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden, A.V.Subramanian. G.L.Hart and
karurikdl venkuruku meyum
perumkulam a y i ~ ~ eitaimulai
n
nirainte
The Images used in the o r ~ g ~ n describe
al
the endless tears of the g ~ r l
caused by her incessant sorrow and her tears u e r e so profuse that the space
between her breasts has become a great pond "perumkulam". u h e r e the
black legged white herons search for prey-"karunkd/ venkuruku mfyum".
The metaphor's prlme purpose, as Somasundaranar rightly says, is to
enhance the aesthetic delight and poetic sensibility and thereby express the
poignancy of the grief. l 8 The paln of partlng and agony caused by the
lover's absence are integral aspects of all love episodes but the girl's plight
in this poem has an added significance because her grief is tinged wlth
guilt. L~teraltranslations can be hlghly d a m a g ~ n gto the original in more
than one way, because they not only mutilate the spirit of the poem but also
debase the message conveyed.
al
for the
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have made an ~ l l o g ~ c option
literal meaning of the word "miyum" which means "to graze". "Graze'
IS
to "feed on growing herbage as do cattle and sheep".19 The origlnal does
not make even the wildest possible reference to "graze" and obviously
"black legged white herons" are not expected to "graze". Thus a
magnificent metaphor has been marred by the meticulously chosen absurd
word.
G.L.Hart3s perfunctory and insensate rendering of the metaphor is
unpardonable because as a translator he should have taken great care in
grasping the relevance of every word in the original. " n < r ~ i n t i 1s
" the
concluding word of the or~ginal,and the word "niraral" used as a verb means
"to fill''. The space between the breasts has become a great pond because
of the ceaseless tears of the girl and G.L.Hart3s version has completely lost
the keyword "n[rainrPt. The enormity of this lapse is shocking as well as
saddening.
T h e space between my breasts
bas become empty
like a great pond
where white herons with black legs
search for prey
(Italics not in original)
The version leaves the metaphor "empty" bereft of sense and beauty.
Though commentators speak at length of the significance of this
metaphor and quote similar ones from other poems of akom genre,
Iyengar stresses the need for diligence while interpreting this poem.20 He
says that the significance of the metaphor lies In the phrase "perumku/am",
stressing the unremitting grief of the girl, and this stress should not be
s h ~ f t e dby rephrasing the metaphor to read " venkuruku m i y u m ku/amU
highlighting the feeding ground of the birds. A.V.Subramanian and
A.K.Ramanujan have made this dangerous shift and thus have sacrificed the
s p i r ~ tof the poem.
A.V.Subramanian has taken impermissible liberty with the original
and has introduced unnecessary descr~ptiveterms that damage the delicate
beauty of the metaphor. One should remember that the poem is in the form
of the speech of the girl who struggles to appease her guilty conscience
through perpetual tears. Kurunrokaipoems never make loud suggestions of
the extremely delicate facets of love and never do they lure the attention of
the reader through discomfiting descriptions. The metaphor in the context is
used by the original to highlight the intensity of the sorrow of the girl only.
T h e t e a r s f r o m my eyes
Fill the interspace
Between my burgeoning breasts
m a k i n g it a pool
W h e r e proudly s t r u t t h e cranes
with lean dusky legs.
(Italics not in
original)
"Burgeoning" breasts and the cranes that "proudly strut" are fortunately not
mentioned in the original
A.K.Ramanujan has shifted the stress from the "prrumku/am" to
"kuruku mtyum kuiam" thus l o s ~ n gthe purport of the poem
T h e place between m y breasts
is filled with tears
a pool where
black-legged while heron
feed on fish.
( l t a l ~ c snot in o r ~ g i n a l )
G.L.Hart's "search for prey" is a better cholce than A.K.Ramanujan's "feed
on fish" because the latter definitely gives an undue stress to the word
"m<vum", thus maklng the grief of the g ~ r ltotally inslgn~ficant
KUR UNTOKAI 399
Very subtle changes take place in the b e h a v ~ o u r ,physique and mental
makeup of the girl when she 1s afflicted with love-sickness, technlcall!
known as "kdmandj' The girl's friend, because of her intimate
companionship w ~ t hthe girl will make an early detection of the diagnostic
symptoms of "kdmandy. The physique of the girl would undergo obvlous
changes like loss o f weight, indicated by her bangles becoming loose
"kaivalai nekiltal', and the spreading of pallor on her body "pacappu uiral'.
These physical changes, exhibitive of the intense love felt by the girl for the
man, give ample scope for the Kuruntokaipoets to employ stunning similes.
Kuruntokai 399, by Paranar is a compact poem of just four lines,
where the girl expresses the need for an early marriage w ~ t hthe man. He is
keen on continuing his relationship with the girl In secrecy and is in no
haste for the
marriage.
The body of the girl has already started showing
external symptoms, and she tells her f r ~ c n dthat her body's pallor responds
to the touch of the man
\'cry
much like the moss that has grown on the
surface of the water in the water tank of the town. The pallor d~sappears
whenever he touches her and appears a g a ~ nthe instant he leaves her.
rirunkegi unturaittokka
p i c i y a c C pacalai k i talar
totuvuJi totuvu.li n i d k i
vituvuli vituvuji parattaldce
T h ~ spoem has been translated by Shanmugam P i l l a ~and Ludden, Kamil .V.
Zvelebil, A,\'. Subramanian, A.K.Ramanujan and G.L.Hart.
"Pacala~"has been translated as "pallor" by Shanmugam Pilla~and Ludden
and Kamil V. Zvelebil while A.V.Subramanian has qualified it as "sickly pallor",
and A.K.Ramanujan has specified it as "body's pallor". G.L.Han3suses "paleness"
to mean '>acalaiM (Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden have referred to "pucappu Grlul'
as growing pale in Kuruntokai371).
The phrase "~irunkFgi"
has been translated in a descr~ptivefashion
by both Shanmugam Piilai and Ludden and Kamil V . Zvelebll and both have
given astonishingly slmilar (same?),rendering in English for the simlle of
the poem.
M y pallor is like
green algae growing on the pond
Where the village gets its drinking water;
-Shanmugam Plllal and Ludden
My pallor is like the green algae
growing on the pond
Where the village gets its
drinking water:
- Kamil .V. Zvelebil
(Itallcs not in original)
Of course, the definite article that precedes "green algae", the conspicuously
insignificant difference in the format and the punctuation mark are the vltal
aspects of Kamil V.Zvelebil's version that speak of hls o r i g l n a ~ i t y . ~ '
A.V.Subraman~an'sverbosity does not spare this snccrnct s ~ m i l ealso
and h ~ sversron reads long
You notice dear, how on my skin,
A sickly pallor spreads,
Even like the d a r k green moss
Growing on the water
T h a t keeps away when people use
T h e water in the pond
A.K Ramanujan, sharply conscious of the fdct that brevlty
IS
one of
the most beautiful aspects of Kuruntokai, has taken care to use economy In
words
His version of the metaphor is both concise and correct.
Like moss on water
in the town's water tank;
the body's pallor
clears
Ironically, this hard earned correctness is considerably lost towards
the close of the poem whose reason is discussed later in this chapter
It is-rather a disgusting choice of word made by G.L.Hart who has
translated "prici" as "scum". The dictionary meaning for scum is, "a film
or layer o f foul or extraneous matter that forms on the surface of the
liquid"".
Erudition and gentility of a society as seen through 11s literature
are meant to be respected and when G.L Hart's rendition reads.
Like t h e scum on t h e well
f r o m which towns folk d r i n k
the reader is prone to wonder if this version of the s i ~ n ~ IlSe not an
outrageous insult to the cultural sophistication of a society w h ~ c hhas
produced a vintage classic like Kurunfokai.
Translators like A.K.Ramanujan and Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden
have taken great care in communicating through the v ~ s u a lappearance of
their versions by uslng a half-line format, b u t the syntax order of the
Kuruntokaipoem
IS
a vital intrinsic part of ~ t total
s
structure and any
distortion of its syntax does not always produce a d e s ~ r a b l eeffect
When
irnpl~citcomparisons, similes and metaphors are put to spatial arrangement,
there is an apparent lack of logical harmony bet*een the elements of a
sentence that comes out glaringly. The meaning of a K u r u n t o k a i p o e m is
both sign bound and content bound in the sense that individual words and
thought groups or association of ideas accumulate meanlng as the poem is
read
i ~ distorts
For example, A.K.Ramanujan's rendering of K u r u n ~ u k 399
the syntax of the original by shunting words to and fro In such a jumpy and
jerky fashion that the appropriateness of the simile is adequately lost by the
time a reader reaches the close of the version.
Like moss on water
in the town's water tank:
the body's pallor
clears
as my lover touches
a n d touches,
and spreads again.
as h e lets go,
as he lets go.
Translation and interpretation are t u o entirely different activities
though every reading is an interpretation, that encourages better translation
But as can be seen in the version quoted abol'e, the s ~ m ~ stays
l e completely
cut oif irom the significant suggestion it makes, looklng like an
iilterpretation of the original as ~nferredby the Iranslator. Such inierences
do ~nterferewith the reader's appreciation of the s ~ m i l e .
Insisting on fidelity to the or~ginal,both in mariner and matter, is too
tall a c l a m to be satlsfactorlly ach~eved,and the desire of the translator to
reproduce that magic of the original which makes ~t endlessly enjoyable and
fascinat~ngshould not go unappreciated. Methodological problems are many
ivh~letranslating various p o e t ~ ctechniques.
u l l ~ ~ r aslmile,
i,
metaphor and
other highly perfected literary techniques were employed to make
themselves accountable for discharg~ngthe duty of correct and complete
communication
- the creation
of a winsome verbal picture was merely
incidental and not intentional. A Kuruntokuipoet can never he held
culpable of using any poetic technique needlessly. Most of the mistakes
and blunders discussed in this chapter could have been easily avoided if
only the translators were more alert and thorough with the literary
conventions that operate in the akam genre
NOTES AND REFERENCES
' K . Kunjunni Raja, Indian Theories of Meaning (Madras: Adayar Library
and Research Centre, 1963) 231-232.
* Prof. T . P . Meenakshisundaran. A Historv of Tamil Literature (Annamalai
Nagar Annamalai University, 1965) 28.
' Tam~zhannai.Toikaooivar's Poetics
: Imolred Meanine (Ullurafi (Madurai
: Meenakshi Puthaka Nilayam, 1986) 10
R.Raghava Iyengar, Kuruntoka~Vilakkam (Annamalai Kagar: Annamalai
Unlvers~ty,1993) 40-41
Iyengar considers the speech of the courtesan vengefully sarcastic
because the hero who flattered her to win her charm became mute as a
puppet in the presence of his wife. He also gibes a d~fferentinterpretation
for the first half of the poem and says that the nature of the fish that enjoys
the f r u ~ ton which it does not have a c l a m can be compared to the nature
of a concubine who with least effort is capable of winning a man u h o
legitimately belongs to another woman
Thls Interpretation is used by
Shanmugam Pillai and Ludden.
' (a) "kal(ru," Tamil Moli - Akarati. Tam~l-Tarn11D~ctionary,19Sled.
(b) "kal~ru,"Kalaka Tamil Akarati, 1974 ed
(a)"piti," Tamil Moli
- Akararl
(b)"pici," Kalaka Tamil Akarati
' Kamil.V.Zvelebil, Literarv Conventions in Akam Poetry (Madras: Institute
of Asian Studies, 1986) 4-5.
Here Zvelebil makes an account of the first actual phase of kalavu as
technically mentioned ;yqrka~-p-punarccr The hero makes a gentle
approach to the woman; realis~ngthat she, too, desires him, he pralses her
beauty, convinces her of his love, promises never to forsake her, and enjoys
union with her. iyqrkai-p-punarcci has four main phases as far as the
hehaviour of the ralarvan and talarv~is concerned. 1 . v2rka1-y-unarrta/. the
expression of amorous desire; 2.mqrurtal: (the tuiui\i's) refusal; 3.
utafiparal : (the ralaivi 's) consent; 4. kgrram . the unlon. There are
several sub-phases also to iyqrkai-p-punarcci
Iyengar, 40-41.
Iyengar in his commentary for this poem ~ndicatesthat the key word
a n a n k u t a l generally means 'to cause pain'. As t h ~ spoem is 'what He said'
after ijgrkai-p-punarcci, the word gains added significance. It means
affliction through touch. In this sense, there
1s
a striklng s ~ m ~ l a r i tbetween
y
the young snake and girl. It also refers to the difference in the size and
mighi of the conqueror and the conquered
Kamil.V.Zvelebil, Literary Conventions in Akam Poetry (Madras: Institute
of Asian S t u d ~ e s ,1986) 5 - 7
Zevelebil categorises fifteen sub-phases of iygrkat-p-punarcci of
which two specific phases will suit one of the descr~ptionsabout the g ~ r l
mentioned in this poem.
(a) mu-ruvar ku~rrppunurtralmeaningthat the ralarvi or the yirl
lndlcates boldly to the hero her wlll~ngnessthrough a s m ~ l e Thls poem, the
speech of the man makes a specific definition of the g ~ r las mulai vd/
ey(rra/
All the commentators say that the man came to know of this aspect
of her beauty when she gave her consent and expressed her willingness
through a smile
(b) The phase ment~onedearher
IS
followed by an rntens~veembrace
as a prelude to the unlon and lt is technically called muyankal u-rurtui The
man describes the glrl as va/ai j~utaikkaiyu/ The commentators feel that
thls description indicates the union of the two
The
intensive
embrace can
be cross referred to Akandncfu 142-iot~korr,arukr/a muyankigai
l o M Shanmugam P ~ l l aand
~ D a v ~ dE Ludden. Kuruntokai, An Antholozy
of Classical Tam11 Love Poetry (Mddural Kudal Publishers) 4 6
" A K Ramanulan, Poems of Love and War (Delhi Oxford University
Press, 1985) 305
l2 A
K Ramanujan, The Intertor Land-
( D e l h ~ Oxford University Press,
1994) 114
I' See Iyengar 192, Chouriperumal Arankan, Kuruntoka~Mulamum Uralvum
(Velur Vldyaratnakara Press, 1915) 125, P V Somasundaran, Kuruntokoi
( C h e n n a ~ Salvasidhanta Press, 1978) 173
l 4 See Tamll Moll-Akarathi, Tamil-Tam11 Dictionary, 1981,
Kalaka Tamil Akarath~ 1974 ed
l 5 See lyengar 192,
1947) 264
U \I
C a m ~ n a t alyer, w o &
(Madras Kablr Press,
16
U V Caminata Iyer, Kurunrokar (Madras Kabir Press, 1947) 280,
P V Somasundaran, Kuruntokar (Chennai Saivasidhanta Press, 1978) 185
UV
Caminata Iyer in his commentary for t h ~ spoem explains why
the girl's friend considers the messenger from the man a liar
The
messenger spoke h ~ g hof the man saying that his character and conduct were
good, and he would not forsake the girl
Towards the end of the poem,
there is a reference to the women, who were left to grieve by the man and
this speaks of the extra-mar~talrelationships the man had w ~ t hother women
Somasundaranar in his commentary also holds the same view
I' Robert Frost, "The Figure A Poem Makes," American L i t e r a t u r e - h
Antholorv 1890-1965, ed Egbert S Oliver (New Delhi Eurasia Publishing
House, 1967) 384
Somasundaranar 659-660
l 9 See Webster's Fncvclonedic Unabr~deedDictionarv of the Enelish
Laneuaee, 1989 ed
2o Iyengar 483-484
Girish Karnad, "Another Light on AKR," The Hlndu, 22 Sept 1993
Literary Review xv
Girish Karnad makes a brilliant comparative study of
A K Ramanu~an'sand Kamil V Zvelabil's English versions of Basava's
Kannada Vacanas
A K Ramanu~an'sversion
IS
titled "Speaking of Siva"
Ten years after the publication of this book by Penguin, Kamil V Zvelabil
published his work titled "The Lord of the Meeting Rivers"
The Or~ginal
was wrltten by Basabanna, a Veera Salva poet and the phrase Koodala
Sangamadeva was the signature line o f the poet found in all h ~ sverses
After much thought over the untraslatab~lltyof this phrase, A K Ramanujan
translated 11 as "the lord of meetlng r~vers"
Kamil V Zvelehrl has u t ~ l ~ z ethis
d phrdse to tltle his ~ e r s ~ oand
n uith
the same guilt-free
conscience
has been llftlng entire berses from
A K Ramanujan's verslon to pass them off as h ~ own,
s
published by
UNESCO, P a n s
Karnad, In h ~ plece,
s
expresses h ~ samazement at the
silence of the "academic community" regarding thls l~terargr e p l ~ c a t ~ o n
because both the books have been publ~shedb) very s e l l - k n o n n publ~shers
The s t r ~ k ~ ns g~ m i l a r ~ tiny the versions of Shanmugam P l l l a ~and
h
"If
Ludden and Kamil \' Zvelab~lmakes one uonder uith G ~ r ~ sKarnad,
Imltatlon 1s flattery, u h a t
77
IS
plaglar~sm?"
-- See X'ebster's Enc~clonedlcUnabr~dredDictionarv of the Enelish
Laneuaee, 1989 ed