Pre-Note: Those who know the "Tamil" language, will be aware of the "all time great" creation of Tamil literature - called "Thirukkural". Those who do not know Tamil or those who are not aware of Thirukkural, please follow the link given below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirukkuṛaḷ to learn more.
Thirukural is divided into 3 main divisions - namely Ethics, Wealth and Love. These Divisions are further divided into 13 Sections; which are further divided into 133 Chapters. Each of these chapters has 10 "two lined poems, constructed with 7 words"; these words are grammatically called as "Cirs (சீர்கள்)". The first line of the poem is constructed with 4 Cirs, and the second line is constructed with 3 Cirs. These "two lined poems" are very familiarly termed as "Kural (குறள்)"; it is also termed as "Couplet", but I prefer "Kural". Thirukkural has 1330 such Kurals in total. Without a doubt, there is nothing "that is NOT covered" in Thirukkural. Be it ethics/being truth/god/family/society/caste/religion/politics/sex - Oh, everything under the sun and beyond! The detailed philosophical explanations covering the broad spectrum of things, makes Thirukkural as the "World's Common Veda (உலகப் பொதுமறை)" and unique.
Even, if one know Tamil, understanding "Thirukkural" is difficult since it requires an expertise in grammar and the knowledge on poetic annotations. Several authors have attempted to explain the meaning of the Kurals. Despite the countless explanations, there is still lot of scope for the improvement in understanding Thirukkural. This is because understanding the core (actual) meaning of Kurals is based on one’s perception, absorbing and analysing capacity. And this in fact inspired me to explain Kurals in Tamil, and I started the explanation project on 03rd August 2015 and have translated 1 kural a day thus far. Exactly after 1 year of my experience in explaining it in Tamil, I am now attempting to translate Thirukural in English. This effort is for the benefit of non-Tamil readers, more so because the several English translations available do lack in translating & explaining the Kural to the maximum extent it could be.
Even though, it is very difficult, I have made an attempt to translate the Kural to an equivalent English poetic version, followed by the explanation of the same. To be effective and also easy for the readers to absorb, I have kept them both simple.
I sincerely hope this benefits you all and I would appreciate any feedback.
Let’s learn Thirukural for a better life!
Post Note: A not widely known speciality of "Thirukkural" is that each Kural can be related with anything that is related with human life; this means, each Kural is like a "formulae". My father, who is a "Tamil Pandit", has taught this when I was young, and I am applying it with my Tamil explanation. I am very keen in maintaining it with the translation and explanation in English. So, each Kural will have an equivalent explanation (termed as "Likewise..."). I would like to highlight that the equivalent given is "just an example" and is not limited. Each Kural can be applied as a formulae - to correlate & extract anything as an equivalent.
No comments:
Post a Comment