Kalithogai 110 – Love that struggles to wait

Sangam Lit

In this episode, we perceive a conversation between a lovelorn man and his beloved, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Kalithogai 110, penned by Chozhan Nalluruthiran. The verse is situated in the ‘Mullai’ or ‘Forest Landscape’ and presents elements that echo the soul of this land.

தலைவி
கடி கொள் இருங் காப்பில் புல்லினத்து ஆயர்
குடிதொறும் நல்லாரை வேண்டுதி எல்லா!
இடு தேள் மருந்தோ, நின் வேட்கை? தொடுதரத்
துன்னி, தந்தாங்கே, நகை குறித்து, எம்மைத்
திளைத்தற்கு எளியமாக் கண்டை; “அளைக்கு எளியாள்
வெண்ணெய்க்கும் அன்னள்” எனக் கொண்டாய்

தலைவன்
ஒண்ணுதால்!
ஆங்கு நீ கூறின், அனைத்தாக; நீங்குக
அச்சத்தான் மாறி, அசைவினான் போத்தந்து,
நிச்சம் தடுமாறும், மெல் இயல் ஆய்மகள்!
மத்தம் பிணித்த கயிறு போல், நின் நலம்
சுற்றிச் சுழலும் என் நெஞ்சு

விடிந்த பொழுதினும் இல்வயின் போகாது,
கொடுந் தொழுவினுள் பட்ட கன்றிற்குச் சூழும்
கடுஞ்சூல் ஆ நாகு போல், நிற் கண்டு, நாளும்,
நடுங்கு அஞர் உற்றது என் நெஞ்சு

எவ்வம் மிகுதர, எம் திறத்து, எஞ்ஞான்றும்,
நெய் கடை பாலின் பயன் யாதும் இன்றாகி,
கை தோயல் மாத்திரை அல்லது செய்தி
அறியாது அளித்து என் உயிர்

தலைவி
அன்னையோ? மன்றத்துக் கண்டாங்கே, ‘சான்றார் மகளிரை
இன்றி அமையேன்’ என்று இன்னவும் சொல்லுவாய்;
நின்றாய்; நீ சென்றீ; எமர் காண்பர்; நாளையும்
கன்றொடு சேறும் புலத்து.

Another short conversational verse! The words can be translated as follows:

“Lady
Hey you! In all the houses upon the fresh and fragrant vast spaces, where goatherds live, you seek beautiful women! Is your desire like a scorpion’s sting that must be cured immediately? Just because I came close and let you touch me, seeing my smile, you have decided I’m easy to get together with, thinking ‘She readily offers the buttermilk, why won’t she do the same with butter?’!

Man
O maiden with a radiant forehead! If that’s what you think about me, let it be so! I will leave. O soft-natured herder girl, with fear, it moves away, but then overcome with desire, it comes near, and akin to rope around a churning rod, around your beauty, twists and turns, this heart of mine!

Even when it’s daybreak, instead of stepping out, a cow that has delivered its first calf, will remain within, close to its young one in the barn. Akin to that, seeing you, day after day, trembles in torment, this heart of mine!

As suffering brims over beyond my ability to bear every day, akin to milk that is of no use when it has been used to make butter, without anything else, but the memory of touching you with my hands, pitifully laments this life of mine!

Lady
Is that so? Right at the moment you see someone, you declare you cannot be without that woman from a good family, saying all this and stand here waiting. Please go away! My kin will see us. Tomorrow, I will come with the calf to the fields!”

Time to explore the nuances. The verse is situated in the context of love among workers and these words are exchanged by a herder man and a herder lady. The lady starts the scene by remarking on the man’s desire to be with women, asking if it is a scorpion’s sting that requires immediate attention. She describes how she just came close to him and let him touch her but he seems to have taken it as a license to get together with her. To explain his thought process, she talks about how the man thinks just because he’s got buttermilk easily from her, he’ll get butter too. In their own way, the ancients are talking about the critical concept of consent in intimate relationships.

Returning, we find the man replying that if that’s how the lady feels, he would leave. But then goes on to pen his state of suffering with three parallels: One, a rope around a churning rod that moves this way and that way, around this herder girl; Two, how a cow that has delivered its first calf won’t leave the side of its young one, even when it’s daybreak and time to go grazing; Three, the useless state of milk after butter has been taken from it, the man connects to his life that pines to be with the lady.

Hearing all this, the lady asks incredulously how he can want to be with someone the moment he sees them, and that too in the town centre. She tells him one of her kin might see her and leaves with the cryptic message that she would be in the fields the following day with her calf, hinting to the man he may find success in his prospects to be with her if he comes the next day. Beyond the brimming romance in these lines, what’s striking is the stack of similes that etch the various elements of this land. It’s fascinating how the poets root their poems so strongly in a particular domain and create art that is the perfect fusion of love and life in a land!