தினசெய்தி – 10 4 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
செங்கோல் ஏந்திய செம்மொழிச் சிகரம் – 99
தமிழ்ப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தின் பெருமித வெளியீடு!
– முனைவர் ஔவை நடராசன்
மேனாள் துணைவேந்தர்,
தமிழ்ப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்.
The aims and objectives of the Tamil University consist in disseminating the message of ancient Tamil by publishing inestimable literary and grammatical works of Tamil and at times by effecting translation of some of these into English.
For the past 15 years, the University has been bringing out the English renditions also.
The ancient Sangam canon of Tamil Literature is deemed to be a classical masterpiece, highlighting the culture and renais- sance of the Tamils who lived in the pre-christian era.
Its uniqueness lies in the two-fold thematic classification of Aham and Puram respectively signifying matters of inter- nal love and external heroism and societal affairs.
Dr. Kalaignar, a deep-rooted votary of Tamil Language and Culture has fallen in love with these ancient literary pieces and poetised them in his inimitable style and rhetoric.
It is solemnly hoped that this English translation Gleanings from Sangam verses is bound to carry the message of Tamil
cul- ture and its ancientry to the English-knowing scholars and public in countries far-off
Dr. Kalaignar’s way of portraying the love, heroism charity, benevolence of kings, courtiers, poets and innate simplicity of the commoners is to be found illustrated in these poetical selections.
The Tamil University feels proud in publishing this literary venture along with its three hundred and odd publications so far.
Dr. Kalaignar is a reputed creative writer, essayist, poet, orator and play. wright: His Tamil writings continue to enrich scholars, poets and the public.
A few years back the Tamil University celebrated this creative writer with the RajaRajan Award in honour of his literary services.
It is a matter of pride now that the Tamil University undertakes to bring out an English translation of Dr. Kalaignar’s Tamil poems from Sangam classics
This English version illuminates the social concepts and literary principles of ancient Tamils.
Original to this anthology of free verse composed in mellifluous Tamil by Dr Kalaignar Mu. Karunanidhi, contains about 100 pieces of long expository and interpretative narratives.
They are based on his random selection of Sangam poems, drawn from both the canons of Sangam literature The Eight Anthologies and Ten Idylls
These verse contributions of chosen Sangam excerpts were serialised in a Tamil literary monthly, Kungumam, for over eight long years An English rendition of this literary work is only an after thought, roughly 3 years after the publication of the Tamil version in 1987.
Within this short span of three years, the Tamil anthology has undergone two editions, evidencing the fact in Indian standards that it was found to be a lucid and comprehensive Tamil adaptation for the lovers of ancient Sangam literature.
The impregnable barriers to comprehend the Sangam works such as structural and lexical complexities, unfamiliar and strange allusions, and chaste diction with words archaic and obsolete, have been made easy and readable by Dr. Kalaignar in his inimitable modern Tamil poetic style.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, written in East Midland dialect needed a Modern English translation which Neville Coghill did in the forties of the present
cen- tury If a simplified version for Chaucer is inevitable even within a period of six hundred years, what a gap there is to fill in between the poetic style of the Sangam era and that of the modern age in Tamil! It is exactly this gap, this interpretative exposition of the Sangam poems, Sangattamil attempts to fill in.
Needlees to say, Sangam literature bears unmistakable literary evidence with regard to ancient cultural and social life of the Tamils, and remains a replica of the literary ren- aissance the Tamils experienced in the second millennium BC.
Dr. Kalaignar has been a popular spokesman for and authority on the ancient literatures, throughout the forty years and more of his public life.
His easily readable liter- ary expositions ‘deserve to be transferred to the English- knowing, to establish a cultural link. Dissemination of knowledge knows no boundaries.
As Tennyson says, ‘Knowledge is like a sinking star beyond the utmost bound of human thought’. It is earnestly hoped that this sincere endeavour will serve this cause and do justice to the original work.
The Dr. Palany Arangasamy craves the indulgence of bilingual readers for having effected into Dr. Kalaignar’s poetical commentary, certain changes felt to have been acutely essential.
As the commentary was serialised in a Tamil periodical, keeping in mind a literate public but not solely an elitist and literary group, passages, found to be reduntant, verbose, hyperbolic and merely euphonious have been on close scrutiny trimmed to the extent possible, without any detriment to the thematic content and aesthetic fervor of the original Scenes that are graphic, realistic, amorous and even erotic may have been a sheer necessity in whet ting the appetite of readers when serialising the verses in a periodical.
But in compiling them in a single volume, the effect of eroticism may seem a bit higher.
In places where they appear to be so, certain amount of restraint has been effected into.
So is the attention paid to the expressions that are double entendre? The ultimate aim therefore is to make this rendition relevant, convincing, purposeful and sustainable to an exclusively English-knowing audience.
Certain synecdochical, imagistic and metaphorical expressions that are too terse and concise in form as noted below and too exotic to non-Tamils, unless followed by lengthy and explanatory footnotes, are rendered in plain and direct statements.
I tennampalai cirippazhagi (27)
II. kattanimuthe enru karkkantuppoti tuvateer (210)
III. Tamilaridai orrumai enpatu attippu, adippirai (12)
IV. Mozhi Azhaki, Vizhi Azhaki, Muthunagaipperazhaki Pozhilazhakai vellukinra puviyazhaki (231)
No two scholars agree as to the efficacy of any source material translated into a target language.
The commonly accepted view is that no translation could do cent percent justice in its thematic, structural, stylistic and aesthetic effects.
What the translator attempts to do is to provide the semantic content of the original with the other easily adaptable stylistic devices in consonance with the nuances of the target language.
The concept of translation involves a study of what the author means rather than what he says Even the best translator can make a sincere attempt to grasp the spirit of the original and to render it in the target language
I honestly confess that my rendition cannot in any way be deemed equal to the mastery of style, refined diction, and the lucid and flowery style of the original
These are the qualities for which Dr. Kalaignar is very well acclaimed as the best in the Tamil knowing world This rendering is therefore a humble attempt to capture the spirit of the original work of Dr. Kalaignar to the extent possible, with all my limitations Suggestion for improvement of this venture is welcomed from scholars and literary public.
தொடர்புக்கு: “thamizhavvai@gmail.com
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