AKAM 017
(17) pālar
- Lines 1-5 The daughter's tender nature
- Lines 6-10 The mother's axiety
- Lines 11-22 Description of the desert in which the daughter went
Translation
- My daughter would formerly say,
-"Mother! my body is paining"
if she played even for a little while
by throwing the ball, and if she played
a game with molucca beans
in the company of her young playmates
of equal age in the wealthy
and beautiful mansion,
and got tired and her forehead would be full
of crowded particle of sweat,
would embrace my body warmly
and remain for sometimes like that.
It has gone
(1-5).
- My daughter who has too much mature wisdom
for such a tender age
and who stole fully for herself
the heart of a stranger,
not thinking of us and her dear playmates
who were wearing bracelets,
escaped from the rigorous guard
of her very famous father
and has on her small feet anklets
(6-9).
- (She went into a desert)
That desert has big mountains
on which clouds settle,
and transverse the paths
(22)
- The salt sellers who have a severe stick
to cause pain to their bullocks,
move from place to place.
Their movement strikes fear because it looks
as if a whole village is on the move,
with a great uproar
(10-11,13).
- They drive in the ups and downs
of waterless forest by loud shouts,
their bullocks which meet with obstacles.
That clear sound is echoed
by the high and big hills
(13-14).
- The desert has got mountains
on its sides where bamboos grow thickly
and where the blazing sun's rays
are increasingly scorching
(15)
- It has got in it difficult desert ways
on whose sides different paths branch off
(17)
- and it has yā
(யா)
trees whose trunks are coatred with miry mud
by the big male elephants
which their bodies against them
(16)
- The many well-matured flowers
which blossomed in the red flowered silk cotton
(இலவுமரம்)
trees of long trunks for a long time
are ashed by the wind so as to drop from the tree
like the flame which falls from the lamp
from which oil is discharging,
in the very old places of victory
which have taken upon themselves
the celebration of the festivals
(18-20)
- They become a few in number
and appear like the stars
in the sky before day-break.
(21)
- (Are the small feet)
(9)
- capable of walking
(10)
- in that desert
(22)?
Syntactical link: சிறுமுதுக் குறைவி(9)
முன்பு பந்து எறியினும்(1) கழங்கு ஆடினும்(2) அசை இ(3)
முயங்கினள் வதியும்(5); இனி(5), சிலம்பு ஆரு சீறுடி (9)
தந்தை அருங்கடி நீவி(7) சுரண்(22) செல்லவல்ல கொல்(22)
செல்லவல்ல கொல் (10)
The mother who was the cause for the daughter
(to go to the desert) spoke (thus).
variant readings: $$ட.3.முன்னே.
$$ட.17.கவலை யதர். 1.18.தூழ்படு