Kural Read online

  1190.

  If his unkindness is beyond blame

  Let me be called Pallor personified!

  120. The Lonely Anguish

  1191.

  Theirs is the stoneless fruit of love

  Whose love is returned.

  1192.

  Like the timely rain to the earth

  Is the beloved’s love to his love.

  1193.

  The proud boast “We shall live”

  Is for those whose love is returned.

  1194.

  Even those loved are luckless

  Unless loved by those they love.

  1195.

  What use is love

  Unreturned?

  1196.

  Love one-sided is bitter,

  Balanced, sweet.

  1197.

  Can’t the God of Love, lodged in me alone,

  See my pallor and distress?

  1198.

  Hard is the heart that can survive

  Without a word of love.

  1199.

  Unloved as I am, it is sweet to hear

  About my beloved.

  1200.

  My heart, you tell your anguish to the heartless—

  Bless you, go fill the sea!

  121. Nostalgia

  1201.

  Love is sweeter than wine—its mere thought

  Intoxicates.

  1202.

  Love is ever sweet—thought-filled

  Parting has no sorrow.

  1203.

  My sneeze coming up, does not arrive:

  So perhaps, my lover’s thoughts of me.*

  1204.

  Do I dwell in his thoughts always

  As he in mine?

  1205.

  Is he not ashamed to keep me out

  And come always to me?

  1206.

  I live always on my past days with him—

  What else have I?

  1207.

  When remembering, my burnt heart hardly lives,

  What will happen if I forget?

  1208.

  However much I think of him, he isn’t vexed—

  Isn’t it great of him?*

  1209.

  My dear life dies at the thought of his coldness

  To whom once we were not two but one.*

  1210.

  O moon, shine on, so that in you

  My eyes meet his, who gone, yet stays.*

  122. Love Dreams

  1211.

  How shall I feast this dream which brought

  A message from my lord?

  1212.

  If my eyes would only close I’ll tell my lord

  My being’s secret at length.

  1213.

  I live because I see in dreams

  The one who scorns me when awake.

  1214.

  I love dreams because they bring to me

  My deserter awake.

  1215.

  My joy was great then awake

  And now too, dreaming.

  1216.

  Save for that thing called waking

  My dream-lover won’t leave me indeed.

  1217.

  Why does he, cruel, torment me in dreams

  When he leaves me alone awake?

  1218.

  Asleep he is round my shoulders,

  Awake in my heart again.

  1219.

  They call him a deserter because

  They cannot see him in dreams.

  1220.

  He is a deserter to these people—

  What know they of his dream visits?

  123. Evening Sorrows

  1221.

  Bless you, Evening, no evening

  But a bride-killer!

  1222.

  Bless you, muddled, lack-lustre twilight!

  Is your love, too, cruel?

  1223.

  The evening that once came trembling and pale

  Comes now fierce and destructive.

  1224.

  When my love is away, in strides the evening

  Like a murderous foe.

  1225.

  What good did

  I do to dawn? What harm to evening?

  1226.

  When my love was with me I did not know

  How cruel evening could be.

  1227.

  This my sickness buds in the morning,

  Grows through the day, and blossoms at eve.

  1228.

  The shepherd’s pipe, once sweet,

  Is the killer evening’s harbinger and weapon.

  1229.

  This place will all be dizzy and grieved

  When the evening spreads and smothers me.

  1230.

  Since wealth is all he cares for, this muddled eve

  Will kill my life so long preserved.

  124. Wasting Away

  HER FRIEND

  1231.

  Brooding over him who left us in the dumps

  Your eyes now quail before the flowers?

  1232.

  Dim and tearful, your eyes proclaim

  Your lord’s cruelty.

  1233.

  The shoulders that swelled on the bridal day

  Now proclaim the parting.

  1234.

  Your lord away, your thin shoulders droop,

  Beauty and bracelets lost.

  1235.

  Shoulders which droop and bracelets which slip

  Proclaim his cruelty.

  SHE

  1236.

  Let drooping shoulders and slipping bracelets be—

  I can bear them, but not your censure of him.

  1237.

  My heart, would you gain glory? Go tell that cruel man

  Of the uproar caused by my drooping shoulders.

  HE

  1238.

  Once, when I loosened my embrace,

  That poor girl’s forehead grew pale.

  1239.

  Her large eyes dimmed with tears

  When but a breath came between us.

  1240.

  Did those eyes dim in response

  To the bright forehead’s paling?

  125. To her Heart

  1241.

  My heart, can’t you suggest any remedy at all

  For this incurable sickness?

  1242.

  Bless you, my heart: when he does not love us

  What folly to pine for him!

  1243.

  O heart, what use to stay here and pine

  When he who causes this sickness is heartless?

  1244.

  O heart, if you are going to him, take these eyes too;

  Else they will eat me up.

  1245.

  Have we the strength, O heart, to give up one

  Who does not love us when we love him?

  1246.

  O my heart, your wrath is a hoax: Face to face, you will yield.

  1247.

  My good heart, give up either love or shame—

  Both those I cannot bear.

  1248.

  My heart, you are a fool to chase him

  Crying, “He is pitiless”.

  1249.

  Whom are you seeking outside, my heart,

  While my dear one is within?

  1250.

  If I keep the deserter longer in my heart,

  My soul too will wither.

  126. Farewell, Reserve!

  1251.

  Love the axe breaks down the bolted door

  Of bashful reserve.

  1252.

  That pitiless thing called Love exploits even at night

  Its mother, my heart.*

  1253.

  Fain would I hide my love, but it breaks out

  Like a sneeze.

  1254.

  I thought I had control, but my love

  Breaks all bonds.

  1255.

  Not for the love-sick is the dignity
>
  That will not chase the indifferent.

  1256.

  How wonderful is my grief

  Seeking the indifferent!

  1257.

  What do we know of shame when the lover

  Does all we long for?*

  1258.

  Where is that fortress of feminine reserve

  That can resist a host of enticing words?

  1259.

  I said I would hold back, but when my heart went out

  I too went with it and clasped him.

  1260.

  Is it possible for those to freeze

  Whose heart melts at a touch?

  127. Mutual Longing

  SHE

  1261.

  My fingers are worn marking his absence on the wall,

  And my eyes dim looking for him.

  1262.

  My jewelled friend, if I forget him now

  I shall lose for all time both strength and beauty.*

  1263.

  Courage his mate, he goes courting victory, While

  I stay here courting his return.

  1264.

  The thought of reunion when my love returns

  Makes my heart burgeon higher and higher.

  1265.

  Gorge, eyes, on my love, that the pallor may depart

  From my slender shoulders.

  1266.

  Let my lord return, and one day’s draught

  Will cure all ills.

  1267.

  When my darling returns, what shall

  I do? Hold back? Go forward? Or both?

  HE

  1268.

  Let the king fight and win;

  I will tonight

  Join my wife, and feast.

  1269.

  A day is a week to those that yearn

  For the far-traveller’s return.

  1270.

  What avail hopes, dreams and the tight embrace

  To one dead of a broken heart?

  128. Sign Language

  HE

  1271.

  There is something you hide, but your rebellious eyes

  Reveal it to me.

  1272.

  This bamboo-shouldered girl whose beauty fills my eyes

  Has too much timidity.

  1273.

  Her beauty has a thing within

  Like the thread in a crystal bead.

  1274.

  Something lurks behind her smile

  Like fragrance in a bud.

  1275.

  The strategy of that braceleted one

  Has a medicine for my ills.

  SHE

  1276.

  This excess of affection and love-making

  Perhaps presages their opposite.

  1277.

  My bangles knew before I did

  Of my lord’s separation.

  1278.

  My lord left yesterday, and I have already

  A week’s pallor.

  HER FRIEND TO HIM

  1279.

  She looked at her bracelets, her slender shoulders

  And her feet. That is what she did.*

  1280.

  A woman is most womanly when herself silent

  She makes her eyes declare and plead.

  129. Yearning for Union

  1281.

  To please with the thought and delight with the sight

  Belongs not to liquor but love.

  1282.

  Where love like a palm fruit is large

  A millet of sulks is misplaced.

  1283.

  Let him neglect me and do what he will—

  My eyes will not rest till they see him.

  1284.

  My friend, I went all set to quarrel—

  But my heart forgot and clasped him.

  1285.

  The eye cannot see the brush which paints it,

  Nor I my husband’s fault when nighest.

  1286.

  When I see him I see no faults,

  And when I don’t, nothing else!

  1287.

  It is folly to plunge into a raging stream—

  Not less to plumb known lies.

  1288.

  You rogue, your breast, like toddy,

  However disgraceful, delights.

  1289.

  Love is more tender than a flower,

  And few there be that feel it.

  HE

  1290.

  Her eyes were resentful, but her clasp

  Was tighter than mine.

  130. Quarrelling with her Heart

  1291.

  My heart, you see how his heart is ever his—

  Why are you not ever mine?

  1292.

  My heart, knowing his lack of love

  Why do you haunt him in hope?

  1293.

  Do you now run gladly to him, my heart,

  To prove that the ruined have no friends?

  1294.

  My heart, who will trust you now

  When you rush and not sulk before yielding?

  1295.

  Fear of not getting, and of losing when got—

  My heart knows only perpetual fear.

  1296.

  If my heart stays with me here alone

  It is to eat me up.

  1297.

  My meek and foolish heart will not forget him—

  And I have forgotten shame!

  1298.

  My heart fond of life thinks only of him

  And pleads that it isn’t right to deny him.

  1299.

  Who will befriend one in sorrow

  If not one’s own heart?

  1300.

  When one’s own heart behaves like a stranger

  Why talk of strangers?

  131. Coyness

  HER FRIEND

  1301.

  Don’t yield, sulk let us see a little

  His distress.

  SHE TO HER

  1302.

  Love’s salt is sulks—a pinch of it welcome,

  Too much will ruin the taste.

  SHE TO HIM

  1303.

  To leave a sulky woman alone

  Is to add insult to injury.

  1304.

  To ignore the resentful

  Is to cut a fading plant at its root.

  HE TO HIMSELF

  1305.

  The coyness of his delicate darling

  Is good even for the good.

  1306.

  Love without anger and coyness

  Is a fruit unripe or rotten.

  1307.

  Coyness has its drawback—the worry,

  How long before union?

  1308.

  Why grieve when none cares to know

  Whether you are grieving?

  1309.

  Water is sweet in the shade,

  And sulks only with one who cares.

  1310.

  Only my desire makes my heart pine

  For union with one who keeps on sulking.

  132. Lovers’ Quarrels

  SHE

  1311.

  Whoremaster, I won’t clasp your breast

  A common dish for women’s eyes to gorge!

  1312.

  When I sulked, he sneezed; hoping no doubt

  I would forget and say “Bless you”.*

  HE

  1313.

  If I wear a wreath her blood boils:

  “For which woman’s sake is this?”

  1314.

  If I called her “My dearest”, she will snap,

  “So you have other dears?”

  1315.

  When I said, “We shouldn’t part in this life”,

  Her eyes filled with tears.*

  1316.

  “I remembered you”. After forgetting?

  Said she withdrawing herself!

  1317.

  “Bless you!” she will say if I sneeze;

  T
hen cry, “Which she is it now?”*

  1318.

  If I suppress my sneeze, she will say,

  “Whom are you wishing to hide?”

  1319.

  If I plead to make it up with her,

  “Aren’t you well-practised?”

  1320.

  If silent I just gaze at her,

  She will fume, “Whom are you thinking of?”

  133. The Joys of Falling Out

  SHE

  1321.

  He is not to blame, but a little coyness

  Will bind him more.

  1322.

  The pinpricks of sulking do not discourage

  But strengthen love.

  1323.

  Where natures conform like earth and water

  Love’s quarrels are more than heaven.

  1324.

  This clinging coyness carries with it

  The tool to break down my pride.

  HE

  1325.

  Even for the guiltless it is a joy

  To forego briefly love’s embrace.

  1326.

  More than the eating, looking back on it

  Gives joy—and so with love.

  1327.

  In lovers’ quarrels the loser wins—

  As shown when they make up.

  1328.

  When shall I know her sulks again

  And the ardour which bedewed her brows?

  1329.

  Sulk, sulk, bright jewel, and let me plead

  In endless night!

  1330.

  The body held back is love’s joy,

  And the joy of that joy embrace forthcoming!*

  Introduction

  * Perunthokai, line 1538

  ** “The Prosody and Various Readings in Tirukkural” (University of Madras)

  NOTES

  The number to the left refers to the Kural couplet as numbered in the text:

  1. A is not only the first letter a of Tamil, Sanskrit and other alphabets. Its sound makes possible the pronunciation of the names of all the consonants, e.g., ka, kha, ga, gha, etc. God is like a in being not only the first, but also the basis, of all creation.

  There is a tradition that Aadi and Bhagavan, the two elements making up the compound word meaning “Primal God” spell respectively the names of Valluvar’s mother and father.

  2. Professor K. Swaminathan translates vaalarivan as “Pure Awareness”. “All Indic religions, all sects of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism agree on the Supreme Being as one who is Pure, Transcendent non-objective Awareness. This Absolute Awareness is vaalarivu which like maalarivu whose embodiment is Vishnu is whole and integral. In between we have paalarivu (awareness of dualism, male-female, singular-plural) and nuularivu (literacy and book-knowledge)”.

  3. nilamisai is literally “on the earth” which is the translation I adopt. Parimeelazhahar, an early and authoritative translator of the Kural renders this as “above the earth i.e., in heaven” and most modern translators including F.W. Ellis accept this interpretation.