Thiruppavai -English translation-samples

Some samples of my English verse translation of the revered and beloved Vaishnavite Bakthi poem, Tiruppavai by Sri Andaal.

1. AANDAAL’S ‘THIRUPPAVAI’-
AN ADVENTURE IN
TRANSLATION
Presented by
Dr.SHOBHA RAMASWAMY
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Kongunadu Arts and Science College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore- 641 029.

2. •Aandaal’s Thiruppavai is
a fascinating sequence of
thirty verses, forming
part of the Naalayira-
Divya-Prabandam, the
massive collection of the
hymns of the twelve
Azhwars or Tamil saint-
poets belonging to the
bhakti school of Sri
Vaishnavism.

3. SRI ANDAAL- THE ONLY
WOMAN AZHWAAR
•Aandaal, also known as Goda Devi lived in the
eight century A.D. and is considered the
predecessor of Meera. From a very early age, she
devoted her life to the worship of Lord Krishna,
whom she vowed to wed .Legend has it that she
became his bride, merging with the divine image
in the temple of Sri Rangam. In Thiruppavai, a
sequence of thirty verses, she calls upon the young
girls of her village to undertake a month-long
penance in order to attain their goal of salvation.

4. •Her vivid imagination transforms the little town of
Thiruvilliputthur into Brindavan, the young
maidens into Gopis or girls of the cowherd clan
and the temple into Krishna’s palace. The work is
based on the philosophy of bridal mysticism in
which the soul is envisioned as the bride to be
wedded to the Eternal Bridegroom, the Saviour – a
theme particularly appropriate to the only woman
in the Azhwar canon

5. •The Song of the
Maidens is a translation
of Thiruppavai by the
author of this paper. In its
attempt to retain the
lyrical simplicity and
spiritual tone of the
original, the free verse
form has been adopted and
slight deviations from the
direct textual meaning
have been made to ensure
a smoother reading. Six
representative pieces have
taken up below for
discussion.

6. •Verse I
•In the month of Margazhi,
•On the good full-moon day,
•Let us bathe in the waters,
•O virtuous ones!
•Dear girls of the prosperous
•Cowherd-dwellings!
•Sharp-speared,
•Hard-tasked
•Nandagopa’s Son,
•Firm-eyed Yasoda’s
•Young Lion,
•The Dark-formed
•Red-eyed One,
•With face like the radiant moon,
•Narayana, Himself,
•Will grant us salvation,
•With the world’s blessings,
•Let us offer worship,
•O my Maidens!

7. Aandaal begins her ‘garland of verses thirty’ with
this clarion call to the girls of the cowherd village
to take a ritual bath on the full moon day in the
invigoratingly cool early morning. The symbols of
purification, renewal and clarity associated with
the water, dawn and the full moon respectively
promise a spiritual awakening. Here, the translator
avoids literal rendering of the word ‘nerizyeer,’
meaning ‘those who take a central parting’ and
resorts to the implied meaning, ‘those who follow
the right path.’

8. •Verse 4
•Lord of the rains, mighty as the ocean
•Hide not your munificence,
•But dip deep into the sea
•And with thunderclaps,
•Ascend the sky,
•Dark as the form
•Of the Ruler of Time,
•Let lightning-shafts shine
•Like the Discus
•In the lissome hand
•Of our mighty-shouldered
•Padmanabha,
•And vibrate
•Like His conch-blast!
•As arrows unceasing fly
•From His bow Saranga,
•Come with rain
•This world to revive
•And for us to bathe
•And rejoice
•In the month of Margazhi,
•O my Maidens!

9. •The fourth verse is an invocation to the rain god, who is
affectionately addressed as ‘Khanna’ [Krishna] of the
heavy rain. Krishna, meaning ‘the dark one’ brings to
mind the rain-clouds. In this verse, arrows are a simile
for rain, the discus for lightening and the conch-blast
for thunder. By this reminder of Lord Krishna’s
weapons, Aandaal wishes to reveal that to the devotee,
the Lord is omnipotent. The image of the water-carrier
filling his pot in the ocean and emptying it from the sky
is a poetic representation of a scientific fact, something
which was not uncommon in those days when there was
no dichotomy between science and religion.

10. •Verse 14
•In your backyard pond
•The rose-hued flowers smile
open
•And the lilies fold close;
•The austere monks
•In their brick-dust-red robes
•Move towards their sacred
temple
•To sound their conches.
•You, who promised to wake
us up,
•Young maiden, unabashed,
•Glib-tongued one!
•Get up!
•He who bears discus and
conch
•In His majestic arms,
•The Lotus-eyed one.
•Sing unto Him,
•O my Maidens!

11. •Verse 14 presents a homely scene with its mention of
the backyard pond and the passers-by. The adjective
‘venpal’ or ‘white-toothed’ when applied to the ascetics
obviously refers to their pratice of abstaining from
betel leaves rather than to their dental hygiene.
Therefore, in translation, the word has been rendered
as ‘austere.’ The poet’s use of the differentiating word
‘avar’ meaning ‘their’ in connection to the monks’
temple has caused commentators to speculate that the
allusion was to Jain monks, thus revealing the peaceful
coexistence of diverse religions in that age.

12. •Verse 22
•As the rulers of all the wide world
•Gather in humility before your rooms,
•Stand we with bowed heads.
•As the lotus flower in half-bloom,
•Like the belled ornament at Your feet,
•May your lovely eyes
•Open slowly upon us
•Like the Moon and the Sun
•Together rising!
•If, with those two eyes
•You gaze on us,
•All our past sins
•Will be destroyed,
•O my Maidens!

13. •In Verse 22, it is seen that the young girls have crossed
several obstacles and have sung their way into the inner
chamber of the palace where Krishna lies in sleep. The
principle of universal unconditional surrender as the
path to salvation is expressed through the heightened
use of figurative language. The bell which decorates the
anklet is described as a lotus. The Lord is called upon
to open his eyes like a slowly blooming lotus flower.
The flower, in turn is metaphorised as the bell in an
anklet. The beauty and brightness of the divine glance
is compared to the utter glory of the sun and the moon
rising in concert. Faced with the slight ambiguity of the
last line, which could be interpreted as a) the Lord’s
glance would destroy past sins. b) the Lord would be
cursing his devotees by his glance , the translator
bowed to the majority of the commentators and chose
the first option.

14. •Verse23
•As the lordly lion
•Sheltered in the mountain-cave
•The rains ceasing,
•Wakes into awareness,
•With sparks in his eyes,
•Spreads his mane
•And shakes off sleep,
•Rises stretching
•And with a roar emerges-
•Thus come out,
•Flower-blue One
•From Your Temple
•And here seated
•On this sculpted throne,
•Enquire into our mission
•And grant us grace,
•O my Maidens!

15. •The lion is associated with
royalty and godliness in
diverse cultures. In Verse 23,
apart from evoking the
majesty of the king of beasts,
Aandaal gives a vivid
description of a lion rising
from sleep. The fierceness of
the lion-like warrior Krishna
is in sharp contrast to his role
as sympathizer of innocent
damsels. Therefore, the tone
shifts sharply with the scene
of the mountain cave
changing to the aesthetically
decorated palace audience
chamber and the metaphor of
the lion being replaced by
that of the soft blue flower.

16. •Verse 29
•The Maidens’ Pledge
•At the very break of day
•We come to worship you
•O listen as we sing always
•The glory of your golden-lotus feet!
•If you who are born into our cowherd-clan
•Do desist from making us your servitors
•And thus granting this instant our salvation,
•See then, O Govinda!
•For ever and through the seven-fold births,
•Yours we pledge to be.
•To You alone our bondage
•All other desires transform,
•O my Maidens!

17. •In Verse 29, Aandaal completes her song
with an affirmation of faith. The use of
child-like expression ‘koduppaaan andru
kaan Govinda’ while pledging everlasting
devotion stands as a touching testimony to
the authenticity of its authorship.

18. •In conclusion it may be said that the verses
are justifiably renowned for their literary as
well as spiritual value. Pastoral scenes and
homely images are juxtaposed with
magnificent descriptions of the Divine. The
metaphorical intricacy and assonance bear
astonishing witness to the poetic acumen of
the young devotee, while, at the same time
posing a challenge to the translator.