‘Forget no bond with the blameless’ – Excerpts from a new English translation of Tiruvalluvar’s TIRUKKURAL
The Tirukkural is a Tamil masterpiece of poetry and practical philosophy, with timeless verses on ethics, wealth, power, love, and more. Presented here are excerpts from a forthcoming translation of The Kural (Beacon Press 2021) by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma.
A Tamil masterpiece of poetry and practical philosophy, Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural is originally dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th century CE. Each chapter of ‘The Kural’ consists of ten short verses, or kurals, on a single theme, all arranged into 3 main sections: ethics at home, wealth and power in the world, and love in its many complexities. Comprising 1,330 kurals in total, Tiruvalluvar’s text illuminates a vision of goodness that is worldly and spiritual, rooted and uplifting, broad and nuanced.
On par with other world classics such as the Tao Te Ching, The Kural has long been underserved by translators, who tend to sacrifice its poetry for what they see as its ideas. This new translation draws on two decades of study under the Tamil scholar Dr. K. V. Ramakoti, as well as on the poetic tradition of W. S. Merwin, Wendell Berry, William Carlos Williams, and Denise Levertov, to do justice to the genius of the original and the subtlety of its understanding of life.
Presented here are excerpts from the forthcoming translation of The Kural by author, poet, and performer Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma. The new translation will be published by Beacon Press in December 2021.
Reading Faces
701 A jewel on the earth of undying seas—he
Who sees and notes the unsaid
702 Those who discern the heart without doubt deem
Equal to the gods
703 Those who see behind faces—give anything
To make them your own
704 Though his body looks the same he is different—he
Who notes the unsaid
705 He who can’t see behind faces—of his organs
What good are his eyes
706 A crystal reflects its neighbor—as a face
The fullness of one’s heart
707 What is more wise than a face—it puts forth
Rage and wonder
708 If one should find those who can see within
It is enough to face them
709 If one finds those who know the eye’s ways
Eyes speak friendship and hostility
710 Measure of those who claim wisdom—none other
To see than their eyes
Gratitude
101 Hard even for heaven and earth to match—help given
Without help gained
102 Even if small help given in time—far
Far larger than the world
103 The weight of good done without weighing results—grace
Greater than oceans
104 Seen as a tree by those who can see—good done
The size of a seed
105 Help does not measure help—the heart of the helped
Measures help
106 Forget no bond with the blameless—renounce no friend
Who held through hard times
107 Remembered for all seven births—the friendship
That ends affliction
108 Forgetting good done is not good—forgetting at once
What is not good—good
109 Remembering one good that was done the worst
Of wrongs disappears
110 Kill goodness—redemption remains—kill gratitude—
Redemption is gone
Hospitality
81 The life of cherishing and being at home—for cherishing guests
With generosity
82 With a guest at the door it is not worth eating
Even the nectar of the gods
83 The life that cherishes strangers each day
Never falls upon ruin
84 Prosperity lives joyfully in the home that cherishes
Each good guest with a smile
85 He who partakes with his guests—need he ever
Plant seeds in the ground
86 Feeding the guests going and awaiting the guests coming—
Guests to the gods above
87 We cannot foretell the good of offering—it rests
On the nature of each guest
88 Those who don’t dare to cherish their guests lament
The loss of their labors
89 Want in plenty is what fools possess who foolishly
Fail to cherish guests
90 Anicham flowers wilt when smelt—a guest wilts
When a face turns sour
Friendship
781 What is rarer than friendship—or greater
Protection against foes
782 Friendship with wise souls—a moon waxing—fellowship
With fools—a moon waning
783 Like relishing and relishing good books—relating
And relating to the wise
784 Not for laughter the making of friends but thunder
When going too far
785 Not presence not birth but feeling
Grants friendship its right
786 Friendship is not a face smiling—friendship
Is a heart that smiles
787 Friendship averts trouble shows the way and when
Trouble comes stays
788 Like hands that check a garment as it slips—friendship
Ends trouble in time
789 What is the throne of friendship—unwavering
Support in all ways
790 He is this to me—I am this to him—even
Saying this shrinks friendship
***
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma is an author, poet, performer, and teacher. His books include The Safety of Edges and Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar. Pruiksma teaches writing for Cozy Grammar and has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, 4Culture, Artist Trust, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the US Fulbright Program, the American Literary Translators Association, and Oberlin Shansi. He lives in Seattle. You can find him on Instagram: @thpruiksma.
