The Ancients

[Meneltarma]

But in love our hearts are as red
earth and pouring rain:
mingled
beyond parting.


I just discovered this little selection of poems from Sangam literature. The site tells you quite a bit about what Sangam literature is, so all I will say is that this is quite lovely. We get taught very little about the history of the south of the country in our schools (politics...bloody northerners, etc). My family is originally from the south, so it's rather tragic that I'm only now beginning to discover its literature. Have a read, my tamil isn't good enough for me to fully understand the poems in their original language; I know enough to see that they lose something in translation. But they're still very beautiful.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Melly, thank you for starting this thread. This is one that I will probably read alot more then I will be posting in, simply from lack of knowledge, but I will definitely be keeping up with it.

[Faramond]

Like the algae on the well
from which the townsfolk drink,
my paleness goes away
whenever my lover touches me.
And whenever he leaves
it spreads over again.


Is this love lacking, because it fails at the parting?

Or is it so intense that it can cause heartbreak when it is diminished by distance?

But the paleness is not caused by the parting ... it merely returns at the parting. The absense of love causes nothing here ... it is merely that the presense of love does not have effects beyond its immediate reach.

And how would this woman answer me?

I can hear the answer in the poem. She does not consider this love incomplete. Only the moments when the lover is gone.