English

Purananuru 310

O heart
sorrowing
for this lad

once scared of a stick
lifted in mock anger
when he refused
a drink of milk,
now
not content with killing
war elephants
with spotted trunks,

this son
of the strong man who fell yesterday

seems unaware of the arrow
in his wound,

his head of hair is plumed
like a horse's,

he has fallen
on his shield,

his beard still soft.

Purananuru 193

Like a hunted deer
on the wide white
salt land,

a flayed hide
turned inside out,

one may run,
escape.

But living
among relations
binds the feet.

Purananuru 192

Every town our home town,
every man a kinsman.

Good and evil do not come
from others.
Pain and relief of pain
come of themselves.
Dying is nothing new.
We do not rejoice
that life is sweet
nor in anger
call it bitter.

Our lives, however dear,
follow their own course,

rafts drifting
in the rapids of a great river
sounding and dashing over the rocks
after a downpour

Purananuru 191

If you ask me how it is
that I'm so full of years
and yet my hair is not gray,

it's because
my wife is virtuous,
my children are mature;

younger men wish
what I wish,
and the king only protects,
doesn't do what shouldn't be done.

Moreover, my town
has several noble men,
wise and self-possessed.

Purananuru 188

Even when a man has earned much
of whatever can be earned,
shared it with many,
even when he is master of great estates,

if he does not have
children

who patter on their little feet,
stretch tiny hands,
scatter, touch,
grub with mouths
and grab with fingers,
smear rice and ghee
all over their bodies,
and overcome reason with love,

all his days
have come to nothing.

Purananuru 187

Bless you, earth:

field,
forest,
valley,
or hill,

you are only
as good
as the good young men
in each place.

Purananuru 186

Not rice,
not water,
only the king
is the life-breath
of a kingdom.

And it is the duty
of a king
with his army of spears
to know
he's the life
of the wide, blossoming kingdom.

Purananuru 182

This world lives
because

some men
do not eat alone,
not even when they get
the sweet ambrosia of the gods;

they've no anger in them,
they fear evils other men fear
but never sleep over them;

give their lives for honor,
will not touch a gift of whole worlds
if tainted;

there's no faintness in their hearts
and they do not strive

Purananuru 185

If the driver is good,
the great wagon

that's driven through the world
only under escort,
its wheels fitted well
to its body,

will give him
a smooth untroubled road.

If the man doesn't know
how to steer it,
it'll get stuck all day
in the mire, its enemy,
and trouble him
over and over again.

Purananuru 118

The clear pond,
once banked with boulders and round stones,
curved like the eighth-day moon,
now lies broken:

so does cool Parampu,
once the land

of Pari

whose arms were strong, whose spears were sharp,
whose chariots gleamed.