Preface
Very few in the world outside of the Tamil country have heard the name of the poet whose work is presented here in a new English garb. And yet he is one of those seers whose message is intended not merely for their own age or country but for all time and for all mankind. Born in the lowest of castes and bred up to the profession of weaving, which was his only means of livelihood till the day came for him to renounce all worldly ties, Thiruvalluvar has given to the world a work to which, in perfection of form, profundity of thought, nobleness of sentiment, and earnestness of moral purpose, very few books outside the grand scriptures of humanity can at all be compared. Indeed his work is eulogised by the Tamil people as the Tamil Veda, the universal Veda, the later Veda, the Divine book etc., etc. It is a great pity that such a treasure should have been confined for so many ages only to one single people even in Hindustan.
The translation that I offer here is not the first translation of this chef d’oeuvre in a European language. More than a century and a half ago the famous Jesuit missionary, Constantius Beschi, who lived in the Tamil country for 42 years, translated the first two parts of the book into Latin. This translation was available only in manuscript until the Rev. G. U. Pope printed it in the notes to his edition. It is this manuscript that Dr. Graul is said to have used for his translations of the Kural into German as well as Latin. F. W. Ellis, W. H. Drew, E. J. Robinson, J. Lazarus and the late Rev. G. U. Pope have made translations into English of the whole or portions of the book at various dates between 1820 and 1886. M. Ariel and M. de Dumast have translated some stray portions into French. M. Ariel refers to a translation of the book into French by some author about 1767 which is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, while he himself has published a French translation of Part III. M. Lamairesse has more recently published a complete translation in the same language, which, however, is little better than a bad paraphrase.
As to the English translations with which we are more nearly concerned here, the edition jointly brought out by Drew and the great Râmânuja Kavirâyar is an excellent one, but it goes only up to 63 chapters out of a total of 133 and is now out of print. The only complete English edition that is possibly available now is Dr. Pope’s and it is 30 years old. He has given the Tamil text with his English translation of each verse under the text, has added a large number of valuable notes, and has prepared a combined lexicon and concordance which is very useful to the Tamil student. And what is more, he has printed in his notes the translations so far as they were available of Beschi and Ellis, and earned the thanks of all lovers of Thiruvalluvar.
After seeing the English, French, and Latin translations above mentioned except those of Robinson and Lazarus and Graul and that of the Bibliothèque Nationale, my long cherished desire to make an independent translation of the great master into English only grew the stronger, and the result is the book which I am able to place before the public today.
After a great deal of thought on the subject I have come to the conclusion that the Authorised English version of the Bible is the proper model to be followed by the translator of the Kural. The resemblance of the thought and diction of Thiruvalluvar to the great masterpieces of the Bible, and especially to the Ecclesiasticus, the Proverbs and Wisdom of Solomon, and the Sermons of Jesus, struck me forcibly, and I thought that if any portion of the vigour of the Kural could be preserved in English, it could only be by adopting the phraseology and the turns of expression of the English version of the Hebrew and Greek Veda. The style of the English Bible lends itself, as everybody has felt, to the expression of every variety of thought, from the plain and the naive to the most sublime and dignified that the human mind can conceive. It would have been easy for Drew as well as Pope, who were members of the Christian Church, to have adopted such a style for the translation of Thiruvalluvar. But, as it is, Drew has given but a feeble translation, while Dr. Pope’s verses do not at all do justice to the merits of the original but on the contrary deform its grand thoughts by giving them a stilted and unnatural expression. The following examples will enable the reader to judge for himself:—
Drew’s Translation
Verse 336. This world possesses the greatness of one who yesterday was and today is not. 351. Inglorious births are produced by the confusion (of mind) which consider those things to be real which are not real. 375. In the acquisition of property, everything favourable becomes unfavourable, and (on the other hand) everything unfavourable becomes favourable, (through the power of fate). 397. How is it that anyone can remain without learning, even until his death, when (to the learned man) every country is his own (country) and every town his own (town)? 500. A fox can kill a fearless, warrior-faced elephant, if it go into mud in which its legs sink down. 881. Let a king consider as his eyes these two things, a spy, and a book (of laws) universally esteemed.
Pope’s Translation
Verse 336. Existing yesterday, today to nothing hurled!
Such greatness owns this transitory world.351. Of things
