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In this episode, we perceive a heart that beats for another, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 279, penned by Irunkon Ollaiyaayan Chenkannanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands Landscape’, the verse presents the core reasons for venturing out in search of wealth.
‘நட்டோர் இன்மையும், கேளிர் துன்பமும்,
ஒட்டாது உறையுநர் பெருக்கமும் காணூஉ,
ஒரு பதி வாழ்தல் ஆற்றுபதில்ல
பொன் அவிர் சுணங்கொடு செறிய வீங்கிய
மென் முலை முற்றம் கடவாதோர்’ என,
நள்ளென் கங்குலும் பகலும், இயைந்து இயைந்து
உள்ளம் பொத்திய உரம் சுடு கூர் எரி
ஆள்வினை மாரியின் அவியா நாளும்
கடறு உழந்து இவணம் ஆக, படர் உழந்து
யாங்கு ஆகுவள்கொல் தானே தீம் தொடை
விளரி நரம்பின் நயவரு சீறியாழ்
மலி பூம் பொங்கர் மகிழ் குரற் குயிலொடு
புணர் துயில் எடுப்பும் புனல் தெளி காலையும்
நம்முடை மதுகையள் ஆகி, அணி நடை
அன்ன மாண் பெடையின் மென்மெல இயலி,
கையறு நெஞ்சினள், அடைதரும்
மை ஈர் ஓதி மாஅயோளே?
In this trip to the drylands, we experience more of an abstract journey, as we listen to the man say these words to his heart, in the middle of his travels to earn wealth:
“Thinking, ‘Those who cannot venture beyond the borders of the soft and dense bosoms with gold-like pallor spots have to live and accept the state of lack in friends, sorrow in relatives and prosperity in foes’, as the sharp and fierce flames blazed bright in my heart, be it in the middle of the night or the day, pouring my effort as the rain shower, day after day, I suffer here, apart from her. As for her, who is languishing with a deep sorrow, what will become of her now? Back then, when sweet sounds of the ‘vilari’ tune resounds from the strings of a small lute, along with the ecstatic voices of a cuckoo in the flower-filled groves, and wakes her up from a deep sleep in that morning hour, as water is sprinkled to cleanse the ground, seeking me as her only pillar of strength, with a gentle gait akin to a picturesque swan, she would walk slowly with a helpless heart and come embrace me!”
Time to walk on through that familiar space and learn more! The man starts by talking about what pushed him to tread these spaces, and mentions how a spark of thought appeared in his mind about how those who did not want to move away from the pleasure of being with their beloved would have to live with their friends’ poverty, their kin’s sorrow and their enemies’ rise to prosperity. This spark of thought burst into wild flames in his heart and he decided to quench that with the rain of his hard work and so he left the lady and was suffering there in the drylands. After narrating his state, the man’s mind shifts to that of his beloved, whom he had left behind and reminisces about one morning he had spent in her company. Even when she was right next to him, in the early hours of the morning, when she would wake up hearing the sweet notes of the small lute and the voice of the cuckoo in the grove, as water was being sprinkled on the courtyard, she would immediately miss the man, seek him out with her slow, swan-like walk and embrace him tight, the man recollects, and he concludes by wondering how she would be able to bear with a separation now.
Here’s an exquisite moment when a person, who is in deep suffering themselves, thinks beyond them about the state of the one they love. A highlight here is the imagery of the rain of hard work quenching the flames of angst in a heart. Yet another nuance to be relished is what used to wake a person in the early morning hours, in the place of our modern screeching alarm clocks. To wake up to the strings of a lute and the songs of a cuckoo sounds like heaven indeed. A verse which goes on to show how music and nature was an inseparable part of the lives of these ancients!
