Ten Little Vignettes

These, Tamil pieces so ably translated by Sri P. N. Appuswami though very old, are in no sense primitive. On the contrary, they are highly sophisticated. The descriptions of the Crab in the several poems, apart from their precision or picturesqueness, are meant to throw light on the characters and the mood of the speaker. Thus in II, the Speckled Crab wallowing in the mud and darting swiftly into the hole indicates the dissipation and secretiveness of the hero while in IV, the hero’s faithlessness and cruelty are suggested by the Crab being responsible for its mother’s death and by its living among crocodiles that eat their own brood. Old Tamil poetry thus interpreted–and tradition interprets it so–yields an endless variety of suggestions and a cunning play of half-lights in which the same wood can be presented in varying degrees of emphasis and subtlety
—Editor, Triveni.

“ABOUT a couple of thousand years ago, the Tamils had developed their literature and arts to a high degree of perfection. That this literature must have been large is obvious, for even the selections from it which have come down to us contain over thirty-three thousand lines.

These selections have been preserved in eight anthologies of short poems and one anthology of long poems. We do not know what the materials were from which they were prepared, nor even definitely how and when they were prepared.

The eight anthologies of short poems are named Kuruntokai, Narrinai, Ainkurunooru, Patirruppattu, Paripatal, Kalittokai, Akananooru and Purananooru. Of these the first five are devoted to topics relating to love. The other three anthologies relate to war and other topics. The ninth anthology which is taken up with long poems, comprises both kinds of topics. It is usual to call all these together Sangam Literature, from a tradition that they were sung by poets who formed an Academy or Sangam at Madura.

We give below a few translations from one of the anthologies, Ainkurunooru. In Tamil, the word means Five Hundred Short Poems. The work consists of about two thousand two hundred lines.

The anthology is divided into five sections, corresponding to the five conventional regions into which the land was divided, and in respect of each of which a different kind of love episode was supposed to be appropriate. The poems are all short, being only three to six lines long. Each section is again sub-divided into ten sections of ten poems or decads each, each decad being given an appropriate title.

The selections made here form the third section of the first hundred. It is named the Decad of the Crab. The author is Orampokiar. We know nothing about him. We are not sure even of his name, for we find it spelt in more than one way.

The Crab with its ten feet, two of which have been converted into arms provided with strong pincers; with its body clad in mail; with its curious movable elongated eyes; with its claws which readily grow as often as they are shed; and with its scurrying, peculiar, sidelong walk almost on tiptoe; and which lives its life in burrows between land and sea–that curious creature has always attracted the attention of men. It has been given a honoured place in the heavens as a Constellation, being the fourth sign of the Zodiac. The Tamils have ever been lovers of the beautiful and curious in nature, and so it is no wonder that the poet has named a decad after it and described an aspect of it in each verse.

In this section each poem is a little vignette portraying a poignant episode in the love of man and maid. An attempt is made here to explain the situation which the poem seeks to represent, or the context in which the episode may be said to have happened.
–Translator.

THE DECAD OF THE CRAB

I

NOTE: The Hero swears that he will be true to her. But the Heroine says: “Thou art faithless,” and refuses to be reconciled. Her Maid conciliates her.

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
Where cooling fountains lie,
And speckled crabs
Which have their home
Beside the mounded shore
Of the stagnant pool
Overgrown with screwpine
Nip off the water lilies.
He has affirmed his love to thee.
Why then, my lady,
Does a veil of pallor
Overspread thine eyes
Tipped with collyrium?

II

NOTE: The Hero weds the Heroine after a secret courtship. They dwell together happily for a time. But by and by the Hero takes to wayward behaviour. The Heroine is unable to bear her grief and speaks thus to her Maid:

Mistress:
He is the lord of the city
Where the speckled crab
Wallowing in the mud
Darts swiftly into his hole.
Among the screwpine roots.
Oh! My lady,
He who wedded me
Winning my heart
With fair words,
Why did he promise me
“I shall never,
Never part from thee.”

III

NOTE: Same theme as the above.

Mistress:
He is the lord of the lovely city
Where maidens harass
The speckled crab
Whose burrow lies
Among the screwpine roots,
And gathering flowers,
Sport in the water.
He allayed my timid scruples,
And held me in a close embrace.
But now, my lady,
Why has he become
As oppressive as a God?

NOTE: The reference in the last line is to a God who ‘possesses’ the victim and harasseses her.

IV

NOTE: The Maid hears that the Hero is not constant even to his loves. She speaks to the Heroine loud enough for those who brought messages of love from him to hear.

Maid:
Has he really
Reached his city,
Where live
Those speckled crabs,
At whose birth
Their mother dies,
And cruel crocodiles dwell
Which eat their own brood?
He, my gay lord,
Who held his mistresses in love’s embrace,
While their golden bangles clinked,
How can he.
Desert em now
Having robbed them
Of their loveliness?

V

NOTE: Same theme as the above.

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
Where in the fields
Crabs nip in twain
The red creepers of the purslane,
Propped by adjacent plants,
And which have put forth but now
Green fruit so tender.
His chest is the cause, my lady,
Of heartache deep and dire
To many a fair maid
On whose drooping limbs
Clinging jewels hang loose.

VI

NOTE: The men who brought messages of love from the Hero tell the Heroine: “He has done nothing at all to deserve your anger.” But the lady’s Maid warns her not to be taken in.

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
In whose fields
Whereon globe-thistles grow,
The crab forsakes his mate
To nip the slender stems
Of the creeping bindweed.
Naught does he know
Of the agony of our heart
Or that of his mistresses.
How then, my lady,
Could he ever be
As these describe him?

VII

NOTE: The Hero has not returned home at the promised time. The Heroine suspects that he is faithless and is grieved. Her Maid tells her:

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
In whose fair fields
Whereon the red paddy grows,
The Crab steals
The ears of corn,
And creeps with them
Into his burrow’s recess
In the wet and moist mud.
Why do you, my lady,
Pine for him
And waste in despair
While your gleaming bangles
Loosen on your arms?

VIII

NOTE: The Heroine is closely watched, and cannot meet her lover. She pines and grows pallid. Her relatives believe she is ‘possessed’ and seek to propitiate the ‘divinity’. The Maid reveals the truth to the Foster-mother.

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
Where the crawling crab
Leaves a clear trail
On the mud, wet and cool.
If really the malady,
Which ails her sore,
Is due to the divinity
Who haunts the drinking pool,
Why then, my lady,
Does she pine and waste
In despair for him
While her bright bracelets
Hang loose
And a grey pallor overspreads
Her lovely shoulders?

IX

NOTE: The Heroine’s relations refuse to give her in marriage to the Hero. The Maid informs the Foster-mother of the secret meetings of the 1overs.

Maid:
He is the lord of the city
On whose watered fields
The crabs nip in twain
The white and tender shoots
Sprouting from the sown paddy.
Why does your daughter
Whose hips are so lovely,
And who clasped him in close embrace,
Fondly clinging to his chest,
While the rain poured down,
And the watchmen hastened,
Why does she, my lady,
Grow so pale and wan?

X

NOTE: Same theme as the above.

He is the lord of the land
Where the glorious flowers
Which drop down
From the paddy plants
Fill the wet and moist mud
Of the cool burrow,
The home of the crab
Whose elongated eye
Is like the bud of the neem–
Why does she, my lady,
Lose her exquisite loveliness
Because of him?