Thiruk-Kural On Not Offending the Great: Canto 90, K895 and K897
THIRUK-KURAL on not offending the Great*: Periyaaraip Pilaiyaamai - Canto 90 K895 and K897
[* The "Great" here are indifferently the King or other learned and wise people whom the King ought to respect and fear. In this canto, Thiru-Valluvar repeats himself (though elegantly, cf. K897 & K890) - unless it were for the purpose of reinforcing the idea of the weak who dare pit themselves against the strong and powerful - and contrariwise the strong and cruel meet the same fate of ruin if they incurred the wrath of the noble and virtuous-minded. It is evident nothing anti-authoritarian was permitted or conceivable in his time. Yet, reflect on how Lenin outlived the Tsars; Solzhenytsin and Pasternak - Stalin and his successors, just as George Washington - the British Imperial Crown; Vietnam veterans - Nixon; Li Xiaobo - thanks to the Nobel Committee and other campaigners like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International who would shut an eye to wanton persecution within Western democracies - Xi of the Peoples Republic; the German Jews - Hitler; but NOT the one-man (Sri Lankan) opposition leader Jeyaretnam in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.]
K895: yaanduchchentru yaandum ularaakaar venthuppin
veenthu cherappad davar
Who dare the fiery wrath of monarchs dread,
Where'ver they flee, are numbered with the dead. (Transl. G.U. Pope)
Those who have incurred the wrath of a cruel and mighty potentate will not prosper wherever they may go. (Transl. Drew & Lazarus)
Wherever one may flee, one risks losing one's life if the same person had had offended a mighty king. (Transl. T. Wignesan)
K897: vagaimaanda vaalkkaiyum vaanporulum* ennaam
thagaimaanda thakkaar cherin
[*Tamil has portmanteau constructions such as these to mean: "great wealth heaped up to heaven"]
Though every royal gift, and stores of wealth your life should crown,
What are they, if the worthy men of mighty virtue frown? (Transl. G.U. Pope)
If a king incurs the wrath of the righteous great, what will become of his government with its splendid auxiliaries and (all) its utold wealth? (Transl. Drew & Lazarus)
All manner of life-sustaining powers, including great possessions piled up to heaven, stand to be dissipated if the noble and the virtuous-minded disapprove (of the actions of the king). (Transl. T. Wignesan)
(to be continued with K900]
© T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
Copyright © T Wignesan | Year Posted 2017
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