Long Chennai Poems

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Bharathidasan’s “Pulikku nay enta muulai” (To the Tiger, the Dog knows no safe dwelling!) translated by T. Wignesan 

Bharathidasan (1891-1964) was a self-proclaimed disciple of the eminent Brahmin poet: Cuppiramania Bharathiyar (cf. two poems of...

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Translation of Mahakavi Bharathiyar’s poem: “Asai Mugam” or “Beloved Face”
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On the need to avoid being envious: Canto XVII, K161, K162 of the THIRUK-KURAL, Translation with Commentary

[ ENVY, of course, knows no racial nor ethnic boundaries, but I wouldn't be wrong, I dare say, ...

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K373 and K374 of the THIRUKKURAL: Translated with Commentary

The poet's name, THIRUVALLUVAR [Thiru = Sacred and Valluvar = the name of the priesthood caste of the « Pariah » (whom Mahatma Gandhi prefered to call...

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                   I

They came on bullock-carts
loaded with gods
   Indra
       ...

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Part Two

           a hardly flickering oilwick open trough lamp lighting
limply other framed coloured pictures of Ganapati
two half-empty troughs of kunkunum and vibhuti
on the half-opened cicatrised...

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Dated:12/7/2012.(chennai)... early morn 12.45 am
Black velvet sky festoons solemnly my brooding words,
Exudes gloom from my mindly nib, drowned in woes two thirds.
Sharp shrillness of many of my lingering thought,
Shatter silence of stillness that dusk had...

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THE CHENNAI FLOODS - FIRST PART

Firstly the rains came calling cool
It instantly brought hope and happiness
For people relished the Celsius dip down
And hoped for reservoirs to fill to lips

But pretty soon the horrific floods followed
As...

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III

What shame if might measures not with muscle?
  What disgrace awaits those who fail?
Should wanting life be held lèse-majesté to a tussle?
  Should a nation thrive as in a sundered jail?

To the high...

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Niitthaar Perumai: The Fundamental Role of the Ascetic, Canto 3 of the Thirukkural-K27 and 28. Translations and Commentary.

K27: kunamenung kunreeri ninraar veguli
         kanameeyung kaatthal larithu.
The wrath 'tis...

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Part Two

To have written is to leave but a mark
  nothing stands for the proud rhyming syllables
    more than his acquired business acumen
a Vaishya karmic hope

Now we stand aghast before this...

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Pallikarnai,one of
the prominent
waterbodies that
once provided life
breath to Chennai
(Tamilnadu, India)
is now a garbage
dumpyard. It now
serves as a moving
symbol of how the
civilized can
threaten the
environment.


I

Pallikarnai
Resounds
In the Alps.
Retches the
himalayas.

Foams
In the Ganges.
Forays the volga.

Muddles
In the Amazon
Mucks the Nile.

Incarnates
In myriad moulds
And...

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THE CHENNAI FLOODS - SECOND PART


No food nor drinking water, those alive, pity
Faced chillness, starvation and panic in eyes
No medicines, no blankets and no clothes 
People succumbed in homes and on roads

Hundreds of people dead;...

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Stepping down from the AC coach
on to the railway platform
A hot wave of salty moist air 
drenches me
On my customary visit
to this city I'm tethered to
by my memories..
She coyly calls herself Chennai
like a new bride...

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(Continued from Part Two - 2) 	

While those that lay claim, nay, boast of
    to the largest democratic state
	   a bi-cameral constitution 
simply inherited from Westminister	
  as much as...

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Your bombs and canons come late  far too late now to put together your sundered arms
         no use crying robber in Kashmir when the poor hunger...

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Strolling Nungambakkam’s dusky evening street,
The serpentine vehicles queues hold them as each other they coyly greet.
Ina foreign tongue they converse, so mystically sweet,
Melodies tingle in my ears with rhythms upbeat.
Chennai ladies, Chennai Lasses………
Ear stud to...

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We were small, innocence written all over..
Pulling plaits, dreaming of a new rover.
Crossed paths..when I picked my nose,
While you processed your identity of rose.
She lodged once with me, once with you,
Paving two lines to a...

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A poem for republic day.....
~~~~~ Jai Hind ~~~~~~~~
From great nation, India, we hail,
Where Indus valley used to prevail.
Emperors came, emperors gone,
We always regained our own throne.
Last was the English invasion on us,
Brutal than Alexander, Ghazni,...

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Dear Love,
A farewell finally brings us to this day
The day where you chase your dream
The day where you start your future

The sweetest grumpy girl who we ever met
A person with a million mysteries of her
A...

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How never ending is space-time cycle!
     and think how long our lives are in it's light?
          We happened to meet in eternity
...

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Jul 2013
Chennai

I walk up to the beach, in the darkness of clouds and rain,
I see a lot of people; I avoid looking at anyone so much
that even I notice it.

So I meet the gaze of...

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La capinera's wintering pieces of tropic tunes
    The garden warbler's echoes of dark melodies
Post-colonial poets return by summering fortunes 
    Learnt by rote as sacred Oxbridge duties

Note

The French "pantoum"...

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* Butterfly crawls
with a lonely wing
in company of ants.

* Rocks holding head high
along with sprouting leaf
Branches of spring's tree.

* Fisherman back home
In the evening hours
Maritime land welcomes.

* Though broken into itsy bitsy
remain as a sacrifice...

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