of words in the similes they employ to describe these objects of Nature. Their use of descriptive words function like the Homeric double adjectives, “many-fountained Ida”, “leaf-quivering Abydos”, “rosy-fingered dawn” and the “wine dark sea”. Some of their laconic descriptive phrases may thus be translated: “thick-stalked neytal”, “slender stemmed unnam”, “red-trunked veṭci”,“fire-resembling flower branch”, “fragrant-flowered delicate cluster”, “tiny-winged dragon-fly”, “white-haired sea”, “gem-like lofty mountain”.8 Long and sustained Nature similes are comparatively few in Cankam poetry, because brevity was the soul of Cankam wit. Exceptions to this statement are to be found in poems where a Nature simile is combined with a historical allusion. Otherwise a Nature simile running into three or four lines does not occur too often in the anthologies. The following may be considered out of the ordinary in length: She is fragrant and refreshingly cool as the rich water-dripping buds of the pittikam (in the rainy season) which have been gathered together in a palmyra-leaf hamper and then scattered out on a rainy morn. | (Kur; 168) |
In spite of this economy, however, the names of trees, flowers and plants sound prominent and musical in the technique of the Tamil poets as in the following lines: While the dense-leafed kaaya flowers forth eye-paint
And the leaf bunched konrai sheds her finest gold,
While the folded-bud koodal opens out her palms
And the thick-clustered toonri blooms forth blood.
While the water-front taalai flowers out her swans
And the new bloom cerunti deceives with her gold
While the prime flowering muntakam flaunts about her gems
And the slender-stemmed punnai hangs out her pearls.9 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Kur, 9; Patir; 40, 17; Tirumur; 20; Akam; 41, 3; Kur; 10; Kur; 239; Puram; 2, 10; Kur; 270. 9 Mullaipaattu; 93-96; Cirupaan; 146-149. |