"In the Middle of the Night" -- an ancient Tamil poem I translated

[johanna_hypatia]

ஒள்தொடி அரிவை கொண்டனள் நெஞ்சே
வண்டிமிர் பனித்துறைத் தொண்டி ஆங்கண்
உரவுக் கடல்ஒலித் திரையென
இரவி னானும் துயிலறி யேனே.

oLtoTi arivai koNTanaL neñcē
vaNTimir panitturai toNTi ānkaN
uravu kaTaloli tiraiyena
iravinānun tuyilari yēnēThe young woman with shining bangles

Comments

[johanna_hypatia]

I just want to point out a very unusual feature that's found only in Tamil prosody. There is no meter; there are neither end rhymes nor initial alliteration. The "rhyme," as it were, occurs on the second letter in each line. Here is a transliteration of this poem where the recurring sounds in each line are in boldface:

ontoti arivai kontanal nence
vantimir panitturait tonti ankan
uravuk katalolit tiraiyena
iravinanun tuyilari ene

The other structural feature is that each line contains 11 syllables.

[ebourland]

I really like this. Thank you.

[mysanal]

There's a simplicity there that's almost haiku-ish. Thank you for sharing your translation.