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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