"If it is true that liberal education should "liberate" by demonstrating the cultural values and norms foreign to us, by revealing the relativity of our own values, then the "discovery" and enjoyment of Tamil literature, and even its teaching should find its place in the systems of Western training and instruction in the humanities." - Kamil Zvelebil in his book, The Smile of Murugan , The Tamil literature of South India

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Hundreds of thousands of eons

 Ainkurunooru 281
படம்: நன்றி இணையம் 


Love is beautiful and generous, love loves all the causes of love, all that provides platform!

Kurinji thinai poem by Kapilar, states the words of the hero who has fallen in love.

Vella varampin oozhi pokiyum
killai vaazhiya palave, ol izhai
irumpal koonthal kodichchi
perunthol kaaval kaattiyavve

To read the original poem and explanation in Tamil, please click this link நூறு நூறு ஆயிரமாய்.

Poem Meaning:
May the parrots live longer even after trillions and trillions of eons come to perish!  They are the reason that the lady from the mountains with long black hair and big shoulders, wearing glistening jewels came to watch over (the grains).

 Description: Ancient Tamils had mastered numerics and had names to huge numbers, even for trillions and trillions of numbers.  Hundred million is called kodi and groups of kodi were named accordingly. Kodi to the power of eight was named vellam, meaning flood, as flood envelopes in all eight directions. The hero in this poem wishes that the parrots live longer even after vellam eons come to an end. He is grateful to the parrots that they are the reason why the lady came to the fields to watch over the grains ready to be harvested. In the mountains, thinai (millet) was a staple grain and parrots were notorious during harvest season. Ladies of the households would watch over the fields to guard the grains from the parrots. That's when the hero met the heroine eventually falling in love with her. This poem awe strikingly brings to our eyes, the love and happiness of the hero.
 
Words Meaning:
vella varambin - beyond hundreds of millions of years, oozhi - world's end, pokiyum– pass by, killai– parrots, vaazhiya- long live, palave- many, ol- glistening, izhai– jewels, irumpal - thick black, koonthal– tresses, kodichchi– woman from the mountains/kurinji woman, perunthol– big shoulders, kaaval– guard, kaattiyavve– showed way
  
My Poem:

Long live parrots past hundreds of thousands of eons
For they laid the way to put on guard
The woman with big shoulders, thick black tresses
Adorned with bright jewels

3 comments:

  1. Though is difficult to bring out the richness of Tamil into English, you succeeded to some extent. A beautiful translation. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are absolutely right, aiya. It is tough to bring the full rich essence of Tamil into English. Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts.

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  2. Its great effort. Wishes you get more time to write as we get daily one post.

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