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Poetry Section #8

Welcome to the first verse of Thaazhampoo! I think it kind of looks longer than it really is; really, there are only four lines of words in each verse. It's just that the first two are repeated twice, followed by the last two and then the usual "Oh oh oh...aa aa aa..." in Malayalam movie songs! (And of course, the chorus follows each verse.)

Of course, though it's short, I can understand that for you, the learner, this may be a little hard. So just try to bear with me! If you want, you can listen to me singing it (I think by now, you would know yourself whether my voice is actually worth listening to!!!).

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µHí /kaNN/- written & col. for "eye" or "eyes." Listen! 

ÉxÞÄßøáKà¿ÞX /pataathirunniiTaan/- written & col. for "to keep from burning." From the words ÉxÞÄí /pataath(u)/, which in this particular case means "without burning" (it could mean several other things!) and §øáKà¿ÞX /irunniiTaan/ "to keep." Éxáµ /patuka/ has several meanings, but here, it means "to burn."  §øáKà¿ÞX ultimately comes from §øßAáµ /irikkuka/ "to stay/sit" and §¿áµ /iTuka/. The verb §¿áµ becomes §¿ÞX /iTaan/ here because, in spoken Malayalam, you tend to say §¿ÞX rather than §¿áµ. Listen!

µÕßZ /kaviL/- written & col. for "cheek." Here, it may be a poetic word of saying "on the cheek." Listen!

ÉâÕßX /puuvin/- poetic abbreviation for ÉâÕßæa /puuvinte/ "of the flower." (Remember from last time that ÉâÕí is the more common word for "flower" ?) Listen!

Î×ß /mashi/- written & col. for "ink." Listen!

çÄæºîÞøáBí /thEchchorungng/- written & col. for "spread (and get ready)." Literally, this means "spread get ready," with "spread" in the past tense (as in the sentence, "I have spread the ink on my face already!"). çĺîí /thEchch/ is the past participle ("I have spread") of çÄAáµ "to spread." Listen!

ÕøÎEZAáùß /varamanjnjaLkkurri/- written & col. for "line of turmeric indicating caste." This comes from three (written & col.) words:  Õø /vara/ which means "line," ÎEZ /manjnjaL/ or "turmeric" (a yellow dye-like "spice" used as much for makeup as for cooking!), and µáùß /kurri/ "caste-mark." Listen!

ºÞVJßæÏÞøáBí /chaarththiyorungng/- poetic words meaning "adorn [yourself] (and get ready)." ºÞVJß /chaarththi/ comes from the word ºÞVJáµ /chaarththuka/, which is more often used as a poetic word meaning "to adorn." Listen!

ÕÞØÈMâ /vaasanappuu/- somewhat poetic term for "fragrant flower."  ÕÞØÈ /vaasana/ means "fragrant" (and ÕÞØÈ¢ /vaasanam/ means "fragrance"). Listen!  

ºâ¿ßæÏÞøáBí /chuuTiyorungng/- poetic language for "wear (on your head and get ready)." ºâ¿ß /chuuTi/ comes from ºâ¿áµ /chuuTuka/, which is a poetic word meaning "to wear"; this time, the specific meaning is "to wear on your head or in your hair"! Listen!

So, now we have:

To keep your eyes from burning,

Spread some floral ink on your cheek!

Adorn yourself with a line of turmeric indicating your caste;

Wear fragrant flowers in your hair!

Oh oh oh, oh oh oh, ah ah ah ah ah hah!

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