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In this episode, we listen to the plea of a woman, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Puranaanooru 255, penned by the poet Vanparanar. Set in the category of ‘Pothuviyal Thinai’ or ‘Common Themes’, the verse sketches the words said by a woman to her dead husband.
‘ஐயோ!’ எனின், யான் புலி அஞ்சுவலே;
அணைத்தனன் கொளினே, அகல் மார்பு எடுக்கவல்லேன்;
என் போல் பெரு விதிர்ப்புறுக, நின்னை
இன்னாது உற்ற அறன் இல் கூற்றே!
நிரை வளை முன் கை பற்றி
வரை நிழல் சேர்கம் நடத்திசின் சிறிதே!
A tiny song bearing the burden of an immense emotion. The poet’s words can be translated as follows:
“If I cry out ‘alas’, I fear tigers may approach; If I try to embrace and lift, I don’t have the strength to bear your wide chest; May unjust Death which took you away, tremble and shiver in suffering just like me. Holding my bangle-clad forearm, walk on a little, so that we may reach the shadow of that mountain!”
Time to explore the nuances. The poet speaks in the voice of a young woman who finds the body of her dead husband fallen on the battlefield. Seeing him, she says she’s afraid to even express her anguish with a single shout for fear that a tiger may approach and drag him away. She tries to lift him up but declares his wide chest is too heavy for her to bear. At this time, she curses that Death should suffer her fate too, and concludes by gently asking her dead husband to hold on to her forearms and walk a little distance so that they could reach the safety of the mountain shade.
The angst of this lady is concealed in that impossible request. Perhaps when she imagines her husband is walking with her, somehow she may find the strength to carry him even. As I read this poem where the woman asks her dead husband to walk with her, my thoughts went to back to Aham poems in ‘Natrinai’, to the situation where a young couple elope together. At these times, the young man gently nudges his lover, a girl, who has lived in luxury all her life and struggles in that harsh drylands path, to walk on with him, so that they could reach his village before her relatives came in search of her. How poignant is it that the life of this couple which possibly began this way, with the man asking his beloved to walk on and keep up with him, ends by the lady crying out to her dead husband to walk on with her – Indeed, a complete circle of love!
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