Sangam Poetry – (Translated by A.K. Ramanujan)
1.
Yesterday,
some people of this town
said about me,
she is the woman
of that man from the seashore
where great waves break
on the white sands.
Mother heard it
and asked...
Kalingathu Parani
Translation by Chenthil Nathan
“He’ll come” you swing it open
“He won’t” you swing it close
You swing it all night
till the hinges erode, Open that door.
(Verse...
Silappathikaram – Excerpts in English translation
Translated by Chenthil Nathan
Clamour of farmers, clamour of sluice gates,
Clamour of water breaking river banks, clamour of revellers
Celebrating fresh floods – escorted...
Sangam Poetry : Pura Nanuru (Translation by A.K.Ramanujan)
1.
A King's Last Words
If a child of my clan should die,
if it is born dead,
a mere gob of flesh
not yet human,
they will put it...
Twelve Sangam Poems
Translated by E. Annamalai and H. Schiffman
1.
Whether town or forest
whether lowland or hill,
In whatever way people are good
the earth is good.
Long may it prosper.
(Auvaiyar,...
Birds and Beasts : Codes / Symbols in the Scheme of Sangam Love...
By Govindaswamy Rajagopal
Present-day man has become absolute mechanical and obsessed with material gratification. Up till the period of industrialization, evidently he lived ‘the natural...
Aka Nanuru : Palai – 163
Translated by Dr. A. Dakshinamurthy
(The heroine speaks in desperation to her friend who consoles her)
The cool clouds gathered in the sky
And poured heavily with...
Poetry in a Landscape -The World of Sangam Literature
The magical word Sangam conjures up the golden age of Tamil literature, that lost paradise of Dravidian culture. It calls to mind the myth of...
Tirumurai The Sixth ( St. Appar’s Thaandaka Hymns)
English Translation by Dr. T.N. Ramachandran
1.
Has He placed on His crown
of matted hair the moon
against which billows
of the great Ganga dash?
Does He desire
the musical...
Silappadhikaram : The Story of the Jewelled Anklets – Prof. A.L. Basham
Introductory Note:
Silappadhikaram, the story of Jewelled Anklets, is rooted in the ordinary lives of the early Tamils of the Pandyan Kingdom in the first...
