Sunday, September 19, 2010

Doing Sangam Poetry Again

I am composing some pieces in AintiNais in lines of Sangam poetry. This poem is an instance. 
AintiNais are poetic topos of love symbolised by the actual landscapes of hills, forests, lands, seas and deserts.  These symbolise the feelings of Intimacy, Waiting, bickerings of love, pangs of uncertain isolation and separation respectively.In Tamil grammar these are named as kuruJji, mullai, marudam, neydal and pAlai. 

I am following the global scheme in transliteration here.)

kaDalalaich cErppak kaZindupaDu pANAL 

vaLaiyudirp pazalai poGgu nuRai pUppa  
aLaie ArvamoDu kAnalaG kurukum  
talaippaDu piLLaich cettena tanAatu  
mInmaRap puNNum mennaDai azaie 
kAnan mAlaik kAmar neJjam  
tuyarpaTat tOnRum tolliruL ollena 
payiRRinir pAnmaip paLiGkuTai nuNkaN 
kuyiRRiya cilkatirp paTimaiya kATTi  
nilavu kuvittanna nIniRa neDuGkaDal  
pulavu nARum punnaiyam veNmaNal  
kalavi nIttanna kanniyin pazandu  
nAvAy maiyiTaip pirindanam  
mEvA tuRaivan pARpaTu neJjE  

கடலலைச் சேர்ப்ப கழிந்துபடு பாணாள்

வளையுதிர்ப் பசலை பொங்கு நுரை பூப்ப

அளைஇ ஆர்வமொடு கானலங் குருகும்

தலைப்படு பிள்ளைச் செத்தென தனாஅது

மீன்மறப் புண்ணும் மென்னடை அசைஇ

கானன் மாலைக் காமர் நெஞ்சம்

துயர்படத் தோன்றும் தொல்லிருள் ஒல்லென

பயிற்றினிர் பான்மைப் பளிங்குடை நுண்கண்

குயிற்றிய சில்கதிர்ப் படிமைய காட்டி

நிலவு குவித்தன்ன நீனிற நெடுங்கடல்

புலவு நாறும் புன்னையம் வெண்மணல்

கலவி நீத்தன்ன கன்னியின் பசந்து

நாவாய் மையிடைப் பிரிந்தநம்

மேவா துறைவன் பாற்படு நெஞ்சே.


This belongs to neydal tiNai (poetic topos of uncertain isolation symbolized by the landscape of seas). The tuRai (psycho-drama or the mental flow of the dialogues of the personae) of this poem is the exchange between the Lady and her friends. 

To do a workable translation of this piece -- 

"The wasted day is about to end 
Like waves of seas in strife with banks 
The colourless pangs of separation 
Loosen the bangles off the wrists 
Abounding like ripples of wasted waves 
Kuruku, the charming bird of sea-bed gardens 
Always searching for its choicest preys 
Forgetting fish walks indrawn in slow pace 
As if bearing the first blossom of life. 
My enchanting heart in gardens of this eventime 
Should it suffer still more? Lo the darkness there 
Coming in speed with speedy haste. 
With photo lens of supreme quality 
You who show the captured pics! 
The blue long seas and heaps of moon-drop sands 
Smelling dead fish now with wasted sands of punnai 
Look pale and whitish bleached like a deprived virgin 
My heart, alone here, separated 
From The Lover sea-borne on that day." 

(Of course I have to work a lot on this translation. You can see this link for the Tamil version and also for the two commentaries I have written on this, one general and another in lines of the South-Indian SriVaishnava mysticism. )  

Srirangam V Mohanarangan