Kural Page 10
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.