சனி, 12 செப்டம்பர், 2015

KURUNTHOKAI: 1. WORDS OF WAYFARERS. – V. MITTER



  



 KURUNTHOKAI: 
ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT POEMS ON LOVE

1.      WORDS OF WAYFARERS.   – V. MITTER

Unable to advance the cause of her marriage with the hero amidst her dogmatic relations and gossip-mongering neighborhood, the heroine leaves her clan and goes away with the hero. Some way-farers, whom they encounter while trudging along a sandy barren tract, pity them for the hardship they are undergoing in order to unite, having identified them as lovers.
            They say: “From their appearances, it is clear that they are high-born. She is wearing anklets which shows that they are still unmarried – who could these be; the soft-footed lass and the lad with a bow? Poor ones! They are scorched by the heat of this desert.”
            “Who’re these? Look then! Pity them!
            The man with bow in hand and ring on feet,
            The soft-footed lass with bracelets fit,
            The anklets still her tender feet do bend,
            In looks high-born they seem, though tread in pain
            The bamboo’d barren land which, with sound
            Of breaking seeds of plants to breeze galore
            Is filled, the like of which the peal of drum
            In rope-walker’s dancing play atop.”
-Poet Perumpadhumanar
            After the elopement, the heroine’s governess sets out in her search. On her way she enquires of some way farers whether they came across the couple. They reply in the affirmative and describe in poetic style the appearance of the man and the girl.
            The hero is carrying a bow. He is vigilantly guarding his lady-love against dangerous intrusions as they are wedding through unknown paths.
            That the bracelets are fit means that the heroine is happy with her escapade despite the hardships and so has put on flesh. It is worthwhile to note here that it was useful for the ancient Tamil poets to say that bracelets became loose cannot heroine’s slimming due to pangs of separation and to say that bracelets became fit connoting of the hero.
            The hero wears a stout ring around his ankle. The heroine’s feet are described to be tender. These indicate their upper-class status. The fact that the heroine is still wearing anklets bears out that they are only chained in love and are yet to be tied up in wedlock.
            The wayfarer’s sympathy for the lover’s plight is heightened by their high class status.
            Tight-rope-walking with musical accompaniments in busy market-centers as a means of livelihood is still a common sight in rural Tamil Nad. The sound of  the dried up seed- reserviss of  Vakai – a common plant in Paalai crashing against each other in swaying breeze is here likened to the sound of the drum in the rope-walker’s play. These queer sounds and screeches add to the sinister atmosphere of barrenness.



KURAL NERI  - 01.06.1966: Page 05

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