What He said after a quarrel,remembering his wedding night
Serving in endless bounty white rice and meat cooked to turn, drenched in ghee, to honored guests, and when the bird omens were right, a perfect junction of Wagon stars with the moon shining in wide soft lit sky, wedding site decorated,gods honored, kettledrum and marriage drum sounding loud the wedding beat, the women who'd given her bridal bath -piercing eyes looking on,unwinking- suddenly gone, her near kin strung a white thread on her with the split soft backed leaves of the sirissia, and with the aruku grass, its sacred root a figurine, its buds cool,fragrant, dark petalled,blue as washed sapphire, brought forth by thundering skies of first rains in valleys where adolescent calves feed on them, they brought her to me decked in new clothes, rousing my desire even in wedding canopy, wedding noises noisy as pounding rain, on that first night, and when they wiped her sweat, and gave her to me, she splendid with ornament, I said to her who was body now to my breath, chaste without harshness, wrapped all over in a robe new,uncrushed, "It's hot.Sweat is breaking out on that crescent, your brow. Open your robe a little, let the wind cool it," and even as I spoke, my heart hasty with desire, I pulled it off and stood exposed, her form shining like a sword unsheathed, not knowing how to hide herself, cried Woy! in shame,then bowed,begged of me, as she loosened her hair undoing the thick colorful wreath of broken lily petals and,with the darkness of black full tresses, hand picked flowers on them still luring the bees, hid her private parts. Poet: Virrurru Muteyinanar Translated by A.K.Ramanujan
They served white rice full of ghee and meat, perfectly prepared. Their generosity unbounded,they honored their guests. As omens fell together favorably,as the sky shone with clear light, and as the moon came together auspiciously with the wagon constellation, they readied the marriage house and worshiped the god. The the great kettle drum roared loud with loud marriage drum; the girls who had washed her for marriage looked on, their flower like eyes unwinking,and hid themselves; and her relatives put on her a white thread and the cool fragrant buds of the tuber arukai, whose petals spread dark as polished sapphires in valleys where large calves graze on the forked,dull leaves of vakai plants with soft flowers. And they made her lovely with pure garments. Then they came,arousing my desire, and they gave her to me beautiful with ornaments and wiped off her sweat in that enclosure where the sound of marriage was like the rain. That night she ,her chastity perfect, as close to me as my body to my life, covered herself with her still unwrinkled garment. I said,"Open it just a little so the breeze can dry the sweat from your hot forehead,bright as the crescent moon," and,my heart full of desire,I pulled off her garment. Her form exposed glistened like an unsheathed sword, and she, unable to hide, took off her bright garland of lilies that held her braids and covered herself with darkness of her thick black hair full of flowers humming with bees, and, ashamed ,begged and pleaded with me. Translated by George L Hart
My observations:
Unlike most of the sangam Agam poems , this poem is based on Karpu and not Kalavu. Karpu basically being love after an arranged marriage. In Karpu the women is expected to be chaste and pure. This is can be observed in this poem when the Hero says the women was chaste before he touched her. Whereas in Kalavu, the hero and heroine meet accidentally , fall in love and make love many times before the marriage.
Another observation I could make was how this poem could have been a prelude to the style of describing marriage and wedding night in the Silapadikaram. The auspicious day when stars and the moon meet, the use of two drums,grandly decorated marriage halls and grand feast are some similar elements in the marriage .Sweat between the eyebrows and ornaments and dress as burden in the wedding night are similar elements in Silapadikaram and this poem. Related links: