{"id":21782,"date":"2019-09-09T12:08:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T16:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=21782"},"modified":"2019-09-09T12:08:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T16:08:50","slug":"translations-from-kuruntokai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=21782","title":{"rendered":"translations from Kuruntokai"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kuruntokai<\/em> (The Short Collection<\/em>) is an anthology of classical Tamil verse collected by Pooriko Nachinarkiniyar in the sixth or the seventh century CE. The poems are lyrics of love and longing. Apparently they offer layers of religious symbolism. Here are two translations of #36, giving some sense of the original:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poem from the purple-flowered hills<\/strong>\n\nTalaivi says to her friend\u2014\n\nHe swore \u201cmy heart is true.\nI\u2019ll never leave you.\u201d\n\nMy lover from the hills,\nwhere the manai<\/em> creepers\nsometimes mount the shoulders of elephants\nasleep among the boulders,\npromised this on that day\nwhen he embraced my shoulders, making love to me.\n\nWhy cry, my dear friend?\n\nParanar, Kuruntokai<\/em>, verse 36, translated by A. Anupama<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
She Said<\/strong>\n\nOn his hills,\n the ma:nai creeper that usually sprawls\n on large round stones\n sometimes takes to a sleeping elephant.\n\nAt parting,\n his arms twined with mine\n he gave me inviolable guarantees\n that he would live in my heart\n without parting.\n\nFriends, why do you think \n that is any reason for grieving? \n\n Paranar (Kuruntokai<\/em> 36), translated by A.K. Ramanujan<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Or  #46 …<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poem from the fertile fields and fragrant trees<\/em><\/strong>\n\nTalaivi says\u2014\n\nDon\u2019t you think they have sparrows\nwherever he has gone, with wings like faded water lilies,\nbathing in the dung dust in the village streets\nbefore pecking grain from the yards\nand returning to their chicks in the eaves,\ncommon as evening loneliness?\n\nMamalatan, Kuruntokai<\/em>, verse 46, translated by A. Anupama<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
She Said<\/strong>\n\nDon't they really have\nin the land where he has gone\nsuch things\nas house sparrows\n\ndense-feathered, the color of fading water lilies,\npecking at grain drying on yards,\nplaying with the scatter of the fine dust\nof the street's manure\nand living with their nestlings\nin the angles of the penthouse\n\nand miserable evenings,\n\nand loneliness? \n\n Ma:mala:tan (Kuruntokai<\/em> 46), translated by A.K. Ramanujan<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
I’ll try a reply:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We used to watch sparrows like this one.\nThey'd look up at her, at me, hopeful,\nHead tilted: crumbs? fly away?\n\nNow it's only me. This one flutters up\nTo hunch under an eve and wait.\nWhen the rain stops, maybe it will find a bite.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
See also: when the lotus bloomed<\/a>, nostalgia for now<\/a>, voices<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kuruntokai (The Short Collection) is an anthology of classical Tamil verse collected by Pooriko Nachinarkiniyar in the sixth or the seventh century CE. The poems are lyrics of love and longing. Apparently they offer layers of religious symbolism. Here are two translations of #36, giving some sense of the original: Poem from the purple-flowered hills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21782"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21794,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782\/revisions\/21794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}