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In this episode, we perceive the lady’s angst, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 163, penned by Kazhaar Keeran Eyitriyaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse relays heartfelt words said to an element of the weather.
விண் அதிர்பு தலைஇய, விரவு மலர் குழைய,
தண் மழை பொழிந்த தாழ்பெயற் கடை நாள்,
எமியம் ஆக, துனி உளம் கூர,
சென்றோர் உள்ளிச் சில் வளை நெகிழ,
பெரு நசை உள்ளமொடு வருநசை நோக்கி
விளியும் எவ்வமொடு, ”அளியள்” என்னாது
களிறு உயிர்த்தன்ன கண் அழி துவலை
முளரி கரியும் முன்பனிப் பானாள்,
குன்று நெகிழ்ப்பு அன்ன குளிர் கொள் வாடை!
எனக்கே வந்தனை போறி! புனற் கால்
அயிர் இடு குப்பையின் நெஞ்சு நெகிழ்ந்து அவிழ,
கொடியோர் சென்ற தேஎத்து, மடியாது
இனையை ஆகிச் செல்மதி;
வினை விதுப்புறுநர் உள்ளலும் உண்டே!
In this trip to the drylands, we don’t get to see much of the domain but we hear the lady say these words to the cold northern winds, when the confidante asks her to bear with the man’s continued absence:
“Quaking the skies, crushing the flowers, the moist rain clouds have poured down on this last day of the season. All alone, I stand here, with suffering soaring in my heart, thinking about the one, who parted away, even as the few bangles left too slip away, with a deeply desiring heart, looking at the path he would lovingly return, with a sorrow that seems capable of ending me. Without thinking, ‘She’s to be pitied’, akin to the sigh of an elephant, you spray droplets, ruining everything, during this midnight hour in this early dew season, when a lotus becomes burnt black, spreading a coldness that makes even a mountain quiver, O northern wind! You seemed to have arrived just to assail me! Akin to how the river sand is moistened by the gushing water, to make his heart fill with tenderness, why don’t you depart to the place, where that cruel one treads, and without tempering yourself, being just as you are, blow thither? Perhaps that will make the one, who only desires to complete his mission, think about me!
Time to experience the shivering cold in the lady’s life! The lady starts by talking about the world within and outside of her just then. Outside, we see that it’s the last day of the rains, which have made the skies tremble and drenched the flowers too. Inside her, it’s all about suffering. She spends all her time thinking of the one, who parted away, glancing over and over again at the direction he would return home, as the last few bangles on her hands slip away, indicating how much she has thinned down and lost her health. Now she turns to the northern wind and says that the wind doesn’t seem to consider how pitiable her state was, but instead, it was intent on tormenting her even more by spraying its moist droplets in that season of ‘early dew’ and spreading the kind of coldness that makes lotuses turn black and even mountains tremble! What an imagination to think that a mountain would shiver in the cold! No doubt the lady’s saying, ‘If a mighty mountain can quiver, how can I, a little human being, bear this attack!’
In any case, after accusing the wind to be targeting her specifically, the lady concludes by putting forth a request, asking the wind to go blow, where the man is, with the full force it has now, so that he would think of her and return home, instead of being only intent on his mission of seeking wealth. Here’s a creative expression, personifying a non-living entity and projecting the angst within on the action of a natural event!
