Kural Venba versus English Couplet Yields “Thirukkural English Couplet”

Kural Venba versus English Couplet             Yields “Thirukkural English Couplet”

                                   By

Dr.R.J.A.Stephen Loie @ R.Stephen Louie

 E-mail id: drrslouie@gmail.com ,Mobile/ Whats-app: +91-9677005212 /9444587777 

This write-up  analyses how it was possible for me to write a book entitled “Thirukkural English Couplet”, being published by Palaniappa Brothers and released on 27.10.2018. This book is  mere translation of all 1330 Kurals in 9310 words, each Couplet consisting of 7 words , designed in two lines with 4 words in the first line and 3 words in the second line, which is exactly like 4+3 cheer in 2 line of Thirukkural . But as the above title implies how could a Kural Venba in Tamil become a Couplet in English. Let us  see this in detail  as follows:

Epigrammatic Nature of Composition

As Ben Johnson says Thiruvalluvar was not of an age but for all time. According to me Thirukkural got established for its wisdom, which is based on its Tamil grammar, aiming the world at large beyond caste, religion, language, colour, gender, sect or anything as such. This is why Thiruvalluvar did not use even the word,  ”Tamil” in any of his Kurals, as his Thirukkural belongs to one and all living all  over the world. Moreover the Thirukkural should be used in our  everyday life ‐ its verses committed  to memory and  meditated   upon,  to be quoted  freely as  our very own.  We, I am certain,  will sound wise  if we  could do remember  and share  these  pearls. I believe that this is the purpose that the Kural was written  in ‘dwarfish,’  & has been applied to the shortest measure in Tamil poetry –the Kural Venba.

This  is  to be achieved as a couplet of only seven words,  four in the first line & three in the next   in English merging two different metric formats with a view to reaching everyone everywhere. This curtness  insists on an epigrammatic nature of composition. The kural are inherently simple  yet  extremely subtle.

Unique features of Kural

Aphorism

A revolutionary definition for adultery is Jesus Christ’s aphorism:  “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5‐28 KJV) . Nowhere can we find any such definition except in the Kural as follows.A revolutionary definition for adultery is Jesus Christ’s aphorism:  “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5‐28 KJV) . Nowhere can we find any such definition except in the Kural as follows.

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அறனியலான் இல்வாழ்வான் என்பான் பிறனியலாள்      Virtuous is he who

பெண்மை நயவா தவன்                                                    Doesn’t like adultery (Thirukkural 15‐7) 

Here Thiruvalluvar explains what is being virtuous. It is nothing but not liking adultery, where he does not say it is not doing adultery. This resembles the above aphorism of Jesus which states that mere looking on, meaning to await, to view, and to think of” is adultery,

Phrase / Word     

              

Valluvar uses the phrase, “என்பும் உரியர் பிறர்க்கு” in Kural 8:2 which is equivalent to the Greek derived English word “agape”. The phrase by valluvar equals the word ‘agape’. It cannot be seen in any other language as far my knowledge goes and as the research suggests.

Kural, Swami Vivekanada & the Bible

உள்ளுவ தெல்லாம் உயர்வுள்ளல் மற்றது    Whether possible or not

தள்ளினும் தள்ளாமை நீர்த்து                                  Think  of highly Kural 60:6

This resembles what Swami Vivekananda said “ You will become what you think of” and the Proverbs 23:7 which is “As he thinketh in his heart so is he…”

Why is Grammar important for any language ?     

As we are aware grammar is essential and  important because it is the language that makes it possible for all of us to talk about language. Grammar calls the kinds of words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English but also in any other language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children—we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences—that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity. Grammar shows how mature we are to tackle the problems and troubles of everyday life. And knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow grammatical patterns

"Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves. The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language. It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English. And it can help everyone—not only teachers of English, but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning." (David Crystal, Making Sense of Grammar. Longman, 2004)     Venba

(வெண்பா in Tamil) Venba is a form of classical Tamil poetry. This sort of Classical Tamil poetry has been classified based upon the rules of metric prosody. These rules form a context-free grammar. Every Venba consists of between two and twelve lines.

Kural Venba  

Kural  Venba is a Tamil meter for poetry which has two lines each with 4 words in the first line and 3 words in the second line. There are many  more grammatical restrictions about Venpa in general, Kural Venpa in particular.  All 1330 couplets from Tirukkural, composed by Tiruvalluvar are examples of venba. Tirukkural comes under a sub-category of Venba called Kural Venba,

Founding elements of meter in classical Tamil poetry

In Tamil alphabet vowels and consonant-vowel compounds have been classified into ones with short sounds (kuril) and the ones with long sounds (nedil). A sequence of one or more of these units optionally followed by a consonant can form a ner asai (the Tamil word asai roughly corresponds to syllable) or a nirai asai depending on the duration of pronunciation. Ner and Nirai are the basic units of meter in Tamil prosody. A siir or cheer is a type of metrical foot that roughly corresponds to an iamb. Thalai is the juxtaposition of iambic patterns.

Note that the official terms for the different "asai"s are self-descriptive. For example, the word "ner" is itself classified as ner asai. And the word "nirai" is a nirai asai.

Meter in Venba Grammar

A set of well defined metric rules define the grammar for venba. Such rules have been proved to form a context-free grammar. One set of rules constrains the duration of sound for each word or ‘cheer’, while another set of rules defines the rules for the possible sounds at the beginning of a word that follows a given sound at the end of the preceding word. Any Venba should conform to both these sets of rules.

Why is Translating Thirukkural important?

GU Pope says “ Thirukkural is as clear as an unpolluted spring.   Yes! Thirukkural,  the unique  book, has  come to remove the impurities of this world.”  This is why reaching all people with Thirukkural,  being important,  can be achieved only by translating it in a language well spread all over for education and learning. As such English being  the most widespread language, as well as the second most spoken language with a conservative estimate of 800 million speakers, as the Guinness Book of ‘Language’ Records -May 19, 2017 says, this language is targeted.

Why is Translating Thirukkural adhering to grammar more important ?

Mahatma  Ghandi  yelled out “I wanted to  learn Tamil, only  to enable me to study  Valluvar’s  Thirukkural through his  mother tongue itself…. It is a treasure of wisdom” .The necessity of translating  Thirukkural  using grammar is the only way to keep the spirit of Thiruvalluvar unquenched to help the non-Tamils understand it in its spirit . Mahatma Ghandi did not learn Tamil till his death though wished to and so he could not know the spirit of Thirukkural   which otherwise would have been fully learnt by him in its full spirit had it been grammatically rendered into  English.  According to me grammar of any language is the spirit of it and grammar depicts the personality that uses it.

My Translation

This is uniquely in 4+3 word couplet. This is because grammar of the source and target language is uniquely merged into forming the spirit of the author. If it were to be  achieved  Tamil’s spirit should be achieved even in English language even without the help of  Tamil language. This is the reason that Thiruvalluvar did not use the word Tamil anywhere in Thirukkural, implying to say that Thirukkural is nor barred by any language even Tamil. This again implies the importance of its translation based on its spirit which is in the usage of its grammar only.  I have seen the Thirukkural in four aspects as follows in all the three Sections:                                                                       

}  Language ( Source & Target) Aspect having three elements as Semantic, Grammatical, Linguistic  & Idiomatic

}  Scientific Aspect having two elements as Physiological and Psychological

}  Legal Aspect / Cosmic Law having  two elements as Abstract Laws /Macro Cosmic Laws Concrete Laws / Micro Cosmic Laws

}  Philosophical Aspect having two elements as Theo-Centric, Family Centric, Education Centric  and Admin Centric

How were Couplets brought out from Venba Kurals

First, let us see Couplets as Poetry  of two lines that usually rhyme and are of the same length. I have handled Kural Venba rules and Couplet rules to form Thirukkural English couplets. That is to say there are four word and three word in two line verse adhering to the former rules and the same syllable meter in each line adhering to the latter rule. A few examples of them are given hereunder:

}   WORD WAS WITH GOD                                                                           4 SYLLABLES

 BEFORE THE WORLD      ( 1)                                                               4 SYLLABLES   

}   IF GOD IS DENIED                                                                                     5 SYLLABLES

 IT PROFITS  NOTHING    (2)                                                                 5 SYLLABLES

}   IF UNITED WITH GOD                                                                             5 SYLLABLES

 A LONG-LIFE  AWAITS    (3)                                                                 5 SYLLABLES

}   PRAYERLESSNESS AFTER  JOINING GOD                                         9 SYLLABLES

 BRINGS  NO EVIL  ( TO ANY OF US)        (4)                                       9 SYLLABLES

             

       UNPREPARED  SPEAKERS LONG FOR               பலசொல்லக் காமுறுவர் மன்றமா சற்ற

               A LONG SPEECH (TO BE UTTERED)               சிலசொல்லல் தேற்றா தவர்  (649)

                                            7 SYLLABLES

 GUARD DILIGENTLY WORDS THAT                   ஆக்கமுங் கேடும் அதனால் வருதலால்

MAKE OR MAR ( ANY OF US)                             காத்தோம்பல் சொல்லிங்கட் சோர்வு(645)

                                                      7 SYLLABLES   

 I have used  4+3 cheer of Tamil as 4+3 Word in English, making use of Kural Venba grammar exclusive to the Tamil language. Again I have fitted  Kural-Venba into English grammar for couplets by adopting the  same syllabic meter in both lines, where a few words are left understood in a few Kurals as far as the English language allows such usages descriptively, resulting Thirukkural  English  couplet.