Akam (157)

Tiṇai:: pālai
Author:: vēmpaṟṟūrkkumaraṉār
Translation:: V. M. Subramanya Ayyar (1975) [IFP, unpublished]
Original MS location:: IFP Library [TA LIT-CL 180 (1)(2)(3)]
Original data entry (VYAPTI format):: Ramya (1999-2000, IFP)
Date of last revision:: 2005/03/11
Table of contents (by lines):: (1-4) The description of warriors who drink intemperately the undistilled toddy secreted by the web of palms and got carried by the women who sell liquor,; (5-9) The dreaded path in which the elephant bends the creeper of atiral (அதிரல்) spreading on common caung (கோங்கு) which grows on the mound of gravel beneath which those who lost their lives by being killed by arrows, are buried; (9-10) The talaivaṉ telling convincingly talaivi that he would go in the path alone; (11-4). Talaivi comparing herself to a portrait painted in a common place (மன்றம்) which wears away by rain and is powdered by sun's heat and thereby loses its beautiful workmanship.
Colophon(s):: Talaimakal spoke to her companion who informed her about talaivaṉ's parting.
Syntactical link:: see below
Difficult words:: see below
Variant readings:: see below
Notes:: see below

Companion (10)!
The dreadful paths (in the desert) (9)
have mounds of gravel under which those who lost their lives (5)
by the arrows discharged by red-eyed warriors who raise a tumultous war-cry, measure the undistilled toddy of clear colour which has been filtered by the fibrous cloth-like web of palms (3),
which was poured by the globular end of wide open pot (2)
and which was brought by the women who sell toddy, carried in their waist (1)
The elephants that live in the forest drags the creeper of wild jasmine (அதிரற் கொடி) with its buds which had blossomed at night spreading on the common caung (கோங்குமரம்) tree which grows on the mound of gravel, and eats it as a mouthful of food at early dawn when the thick darkness disappears.
Our talaivar used to tell convincingly, in order that he may go alone in the desert, to those people who are capable of staying behind in their houses alone becoming lean and weak like the portrait that is drawn on the place of village common place which has lost its beauty as the battle fronts had evacuated people from their places, which wears away as it is washed by rain, becomes powdered by sun's head and loses its artistic beauty
(I am not capable of doing that; so I will die)

தோழி(10)! அஞ்சு வரு நெறியிடைத் தமியர் சென்மார்(9), வினை அழிபாவையின் உலறி(13) மனை ஒழிந்திருத்தல் வல்லு வோர்க்கு(14) (அவர்) நெஞ்சுணை மொழிபமன்(10).

For the reading அல்கில் the meaning is in the house in which they live!