Our Master
Sringarapadyavali
Sringarapadyavali presents a Sanskrit verse translation of two hundred selected Tamil poems on the subject of Iove; it also presents English verse translation of the same verses and a brief account of the many conventions governing Tamil love poetry. Some of them relate the sentiment to the physical background; for example, secret love develops in the hill slopes while separation is presented in the background of grassy meadows. Throughout the work, love is presented at the highest level and sex)’, obscene observations are totally absent. Idealised love is portrayed against exquisitely drawn natural background which reinforced the sentiment. A book of transcendental aesthetic appeal that is bound to please as well as elevate the mood of the reader.
**
You come and say
“I wonder what
We can really do
In respect of
The chief of the hill
Where vengai trees
Grow beside
The waterfalls!”
If I didn’t
Dismiss this
As badinage,
Contemplate
What harm would happen
To you, my dear!
(Kuruntokai 96)
**
He left me, dear, when dew drops scatter
Like pearls from a string that has been cut,
When herds of cattle in the meadow graze,
He left me early in the morning
In dreary winter, nor does he seem
Inclined to hurry home to me,
And no end to my lonely days!
(Kuruntokai 104)
**
The girl to the friend :-
On his hills, a peacock, finding
A sheaf of grain (offered by
A farmer to the gods, out of his harvest)
Gobbles it up without knowing
And develops a tremor on that account,
Even as a priestess, possessed, trembles.
Dearest friend, the love I bear
To the lord of the hills that was pleasant at the start
Now makes me shed tears of anguish
Whenever remembered.
(Kuruntokai 105)
***
The girl to her friend:
Rain clouds frisk at the top of the hill,
In the hamlet, at the foot of the hill, the cattle
Out for grazing, now wend their way
Homewards, filled with thoughts of their calves.
The faultless jati blooms in the meadow
Reminding one of the evening skies.
I cannot, dear, hold on to life
Much longer, now; I know I’m finished.
(Kuruntokai 108)
***
The girl to her friend :
The cold wind from the north
pens the buds of the neelam
And shakes the karuvilai bloom
That looks like the eye of the feather
Of peacocks; the wind blows on
To shake down the eengai blossom
Small and tender from
The plant with slender thorns.
The north wind, bitter, cold
Blows on making me
Suffer endless misery
Since he cares so little
How I am faring, dear,
What is he to me?
Whether he comes or not
How does that matter to me?
(Kuruntokai 11 0)
***
The girl to her friend-
If I fear the scandal
My love shall fade away.
If I forsake my love
To stop the calumny
What’s left with me
Is only my bashfulness.
Look, dear, like the branch
Broken by an elephant,
Standing at an angle
Not touching the ground below,
With the fibrous bark showing
Are my feminine graces
Devoured by the chieftain!
***
The friend to the girl
He could not have taken deep refuge
In the bowels of the earth or climbed to the heavens,
He could not have voyaged on the stormy sea
By walking on air: he must be somewhere!
Will he prove so hard to find
If we enquire at every house
In the towns and villages in every land
In every remote habitation?
Will he, my dear, prove elusive
If diligently we look for him,
If we search for him with a will to find?
(Kuruntokai 130)
***
The girl to the friend
The millet planted by the hiliman farmer,
Some stood bare, as the ears of corn
Had been cropped by pirate parrots
But, on the rains coming copious down,
They put forth shoots; like that, dear,
Though the chieftain had consumed mine
Feminine graces that had remained fresh
Virgin, untouched before we met
And I am now left debilitated,
I still breathe, there is life in me!
(Kuruntokai 133)
**
The married woman to her friend who has just spoken critically of the straying husband
What useful purpose is served, my dear, by these
Critical words which you have used against him?
You know I suffer. But you should also know
That like the female buffalo staying put
At the side of her new-born calf, tethered
By the farmer fast to post, now content
To graze the grass that grows around the stall,
I am a senior matron on whom lies
Many a duty in this teeming household.
So nothing’s gained by talking ill of him!
(Kuruntokai 181)
**
The girl to her friend
The clouds over his country
With thunder resounding
Have sent down ample rains
And the mullai, well-nourished
Has blossomed forth with flowers
White like a row of teeth.
My eyes have since renounced
All claims to sleep, my dear,
In favour of the chief
Of the blooming meadowlands.
(Kuruntokai 186)
**
The friend of the girl to the husband seeking admission to the house after a sojourn with prostitutes
In those days when my dear friend
Offered you the unripe fruit
Of the neem tree you did pronounce that
The sweetest bit of jaggery!
Today if she offers you
The sweet cool water from Parambu hill
Of king Pan, drawn in the month
Of January, you dismissed it
As warm, as unfit to be imbibed?
Such is the t.asic nature, chieftain,
Of the quality of affection!
(Kuruntokai 196)
***
The friend of the girl to the boy
Mountain chief, we have been asked
By our mother to go to the fields
Where grow the crop in succulent clusters,
The ears curved like tongs — the crop
That has been coming up in the mountain sides
Cleared of trees cut down and burnt!
We’ve been told off to guard the grain
From the parrot flocks; we shall be spending
Most of the day in the millet fields
Do not come on nighty tryst
Perfumed by rich sandalpaste!
Do not meet us, mighty chieftain,
Here in tryst: for mother may suspect
And surprise us; pray, do not come:
(The negative apparently gets emphasized here, in this piece. But the real message is that the trysting spot is changed from under the tree in the garden to the millet fields and the time from the dead of night to the day.)
(Kuruntokai 198)
***
The friend to the boy who was surprised at seeing the healthy radiance of the girl after a long separation
It sounds mean, it will not suffice — The feast of rice, the whitest kind
That only grows in the Tondi fields
Cooked with the ghee from the cows tended
By the skilful cowherds of Nalli’s woods — The feast that’s proffered in seven silver plates
Would seem poor as a compensation
To the benevolent crow which cawed today
In our backyard, chieftain, thus presaging — The arrival of a welcome guest.
(Kuruntokai 210)
***
The boy at a very early stage of the romance, to himself making up his mind to seek the goodwill of the friend of the girl for help in his courting
If the friend starts swimming by catching hold
Of the top of the float, she follows suit.
If the friend takes up the bottom of the float
She too moves to seize that end.
If the friend decides to let go the float
And swim with the current, she might follow her
What a friendship and what dependence
This girl I love has towards her — This girl I love that’s tender as a shoot
With eves that are shot with delicate veins
Red like the pithi that blossoms with the rains!
(Kuruntokai 222)
***
The friend to the girl with the boy listening in, concealed:
You notice, dear, how
The neidal blooms on the shore
Have been cut as if
A sword has been at work.
Cut by the metal rim
Of the chieftain’s chariot
While returning home!
(The girl was perhaps late to the previous days tryst and the Y4 had come and gone, disappointed. But the girl was despondent, thinking he had failed her. The next day with the boy listening in, concealed, the friend points to the evidence of his journey in his chariot, the previous day.)
(Kuruntokai 227)
***
The friend of the girl to the boy who had been disappointed at the girl’s failure to meet him at the previous night’s tryst:
You came, chieftain like a mighty elephant
In the middle of the night when all were asleep
And tried the door. It’s not that we were
Unaware of your coming; we knew it well.
But like a peacock caught in a snare
With its crest messed up and feathers disarrayed,
She was tightly held in embrace by
The ruthless mother; she couldn’t escape!
She felt anguished that she couldn’t go
To fulfil the nightly tryst with you!
(Kuruntokai 244)
Translated by A. V. Subramanian (b 27 November 1924) joined Indian Railways in 1948 as a Probationary Officer. Served in many parts of India and retired as Additional General Manager, Southern Railway in 1982. Delivered lectures on literature, religion and philosophy in many places in India. Went on lecture tours to USA, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, France and UK. Has written over 80 books on a variety of subjects. Out of them, three present his Sanskrit poems. Over 30 of them are on aesthetics and literary criticism. Has developed an original theory of aesthetics based on Neurology. Has presented many innovative concepts in aesthetics in his books. Secured a number of prizes and citations; been honoured by the Tamil Nadu State Government and by reputed literary organizations devoted to the development• of Sanksrit and Tamil.