*The Kural*

Or Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, translated with a preface by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, just published by Beacon Press.  This poem, a staple (the staple?) of Tamil literature, is believed to have been composed between the third and fifth centuries AD.  The poem covers issues of wisdom, ethics, virtue, wealth, and love.  I cannot compare this version to the Tamil original, but it reads nicely and is attractively placed on the page.

Excerpt:

Is she a siren a rare peacock a woman in jewels —

My heart quakes

As if on attack with an army of sirens — the look

She gives when I look

I did not know death but now I do —

Fierce feminine eyes

They don’t fit this young woman — these eyes

That kill those looking

Is it death an eye a deer — her gaze

Contains all three

There should be some extra indentation after each two lines.  And does anyone has a link to the whole thing recited in Tamil, I cannot readily find this on YouTube.