Home

Poetry Section #6 

OK, only one more section left, and then we have the translation of the whole song! Do you still want to listen to my horrible singing? (Am I obsessing about it too much? :)).

ÇÈc¢ ÇÈc¢__ÖßÖßøµÞÜ  

-------------------------------------------------------------------

çÜÞÜçÜÞÜÉÞÃßÏÞ¢ /lOlalOlapaaNiyaam/- "with a gentle, gentle tune." Listen! çÜÞÜ /lOla/ is a somewhat poetic word that refers to the wind and can mean "shaking" or, in this case, "delicate." Listen! So,  çÜÞÜçÜÞÜ (/lOlalOla/) means "VERY delicate" in this case! Listen! ÉÞÃß /paaNi/ is also a poetic word meaning "song." Listen! The colloquial equivalent is ÉÞGí /paaTTu/. Listen! -Þ¢ /-aam/ is a suffix adopted from Sanskrit, and I believe that it means "with." Or maybe it's the accusative case...I forget my Sanskrit grammar!

µÞÜ µÈµ ÄâÜßµ /kaala kanaka thuulika/- probably means "the golden pen of time." Listen! µÞÜ /kaala/ is an adjective that usually refers to time, but it can also refer to the color "black" (colloquial µùáJí /karruththu/. Listen!) or even "death" (col. Îøâ /maraNam/. Listen!). Listen to the word µÞÜ! µÈµ /kanaka/ is a poetic word meaning "golden" (and has no relation whatsoever to the Hawaiian term!!!). Listen! A more colloquial equivalent is ØbVHÎÏÎÞÏ /svarNNamayamaaya/. Listen! And finally, ÄâÜßµ /thuulika/ is yet another poetic word meaning "pen" or "quill!" Listen! Most people when referring to a pen nowadays simply use the word çÉÈ /pEna/, which comes from its English equivalent. Listen!

®ÝáÄáæKÞøà çdÉεÞÕc¢ /ezhuthunnorii prEmakaavyam/- This is a sentence which means "It is writing a love poem!" Listen! ®ÝáÄáæKÞøà /ezhuthunnorii/ is a contraction of some sort (possibly literary) of the words ®ÝáÄáKá /ezhuthunnu/, which means "writing," and ²øá /oru/, which means "a/an." Listen! çdÉεÞÕc¢ /prEmakaavyam/ means "love poem". Listen! The word çdÉ΢ /prEmam/ is written & col. (usually written) for "love." Listen! µÞÕc¢ /kaavyam/ and µÕßÄ /kavitha/ are both written & col. for "poem." Listen!

¨ ÈßÖÞÜÙøßÏßW /ii niSaalahariyil/- A poetic expression with a very poetic meaning, too: "in this intoxication at night." Listen! ¨ /ii/, as you may already well know, is written & col. for "this." ÈßÖ /niSa/ in this context is a prefix meaning "dark." Listen! ÜÙøß /lahari/ is an adjective that means "drunk," "intoxicated," or something to that effect. Listen! And finally, the suffix -ßW /-il/ means "in." Listen!

ÄÞøÞ·ÃB{ᢠ/thaaraagaNangngaLum/- "and...the groups of stars." Listen! ÄÞø /thaara/ is a somewhat poetic word for "star"; the more common word is ÈfdÄ¢ /nakshathram/. Listen! ·ÃB{ᢠis made up of the words ·ÃBZ /gaNangngaL/ and the suffix -ᢠ/-um/ meaning "and" or "even." Listen! ·ÃBZ /gaNangngaL/ means "groups" and is the plural of the poetic word ·Ã¢ /gaNam/; the more colloquial word used in Malayalam for "group" is µâG¢ /kuuTTam/. Listen! 

¥ÜßÏáÎà ÙãÆÏB{ßW /aliyumii hrdayangngaLil/- "will melt in these hearts." Listen!  ¥ÜßÏáÎà /aliyumii/ is a combination of the words ¥ÜßÏᢠ/aliyum/ and ¨ /ii/. Listen!  ¥ÜßÏᢠ/aliyum/ is the future tense of the verb ¥ÜßÏáµ /aliyuka/, "to melt." Listen!  This term is probably not as literary or misunderstood as certain other equivalents that exist in Malayalam! And the word  ÙãÆÏB{ßW /hrdayangngaLil/ comes from ÙãÆÏBZ /hrdayangngaL/, which means "hearts" or "souls." (You can find this word in the first section.) The singular form is  ÙãÆÏ¢ /hrdayam/, as you may recall.

ÜÏÈøÞ·ÕÞÙßÈß /layanaraagavaahini/- poetic term meaning "river of a gentle song." Listen!  ÜÏÈ /layana/ is poetic for "gentle," øÞ·¢ /raagam/ is yet another literary term for "song," and ÕÞÙßÈß /vaahini/, which seems to come from the word for "vehicle" (ÕÞÙÈ¢ /vaahanam/), probably means "river" in this context (unless it means "blood vessel!"). Listen!  There are two more common words for river. In Malayalam as spoken in Travancore (i.e. in Southern Kerala), we say ¦ùí /aarru/. Listen!  The other word is more often used towards Northern Kerala: ÉáÝ /puzha/. Listen! 

Äø{ÄÞ{·ÞÎßÈß /tharaLathaaLagaamini/- "traveling woman with a vibrating rhythm." Listen! Äø{ /tharaLa/ here is a (literary?) word that means "vibrating," or something of that sort ("vascillating" if you prefer!). Listen! ÄÞ{¢ /thaaLam/ is a written & col. word meaning "beat." And finally, ·ÞÎßÈß /gaamini/ is defined as a woman who "goes or travels." The male form is ·ÞÎß /gaami/.

ÄÝáÄß¿áÎà ÈßÎß×BZ ÇÈc¢ ÇÈc¢ /thazhuthiTumii nimishangngaL dhanyam dhanyam/- literally "these seconds will secure (with a bolt)  much wealth." Compare this phrase to the end of the last part of the song. ÄÝáÄ߿ᢠ/thazhukiTum/ is the future form of the verb ÄÝáÄß¿áµ /thazhuthiTuka/, or "to fasten with a bolt." Listen!

WOW! YAHOO! WE DID IT!!! Oh, I'm so relieved!

Now we have the entire song translation! But right here, let's just translate this part!

With a very gentle tune, the golden pen of time

Writes a love poem,

And in the intoxication of this night, even the groups of stars

Will melt in these hearts.

River of a gentle song, traveling woman with a vibrating rhythm--

These seconds will be treasured

During the cold season... 

The song ends with the last line from the chorus repeated two times more (listen to me singing it if you want! I love this part!):

¥çÄÞ çÆÕøÞ·çÎÞ?

¥çÄÞ çÆÕøÞ·çÎÞ?

Which, if you look back, means:

Or is it just God's grace?

Or is it just God's grace?

Very poetic song and very interesting, but also with very...*ahem*...explicit, risqué implications, don't you think? :) But our next song, Thaazhampoo ("The Falling Flower") should be much better.

Home