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**PNCarl** · 06-17-2008, 05:29 PM

Didactism-la ivvaLO matter irukkA. As always, thanks for the info podalangai.

This isn't universally true - Tamil poetry, too, can be awful when it tries to artifically root itself in a foreign tradition, as a comparison of Manimegalai (incredibly bad didacticism) and Sivaga Sintamani (incredibly beautiful didacticism) shows.

Ok. Haven't had the chance to read either.
I just read a SilappadhikAram-for-beginners book. And the last kaaNdam kind of dragged. Not entirely because of any didacticism but also because of repetitive, seemingly empty, paens and a near complete lack of drama (atleast in comparison to the previous kaaNdam).

But at the very end there is also a tightly packed and stuff didactic passage which seems like ThirukkuRaL quick-reader in the sense that there so much content overlap. But I didn't find it enjoyable at all. It sounded so much like a sermon and seemed to sucked out what makes the kuRaL beautiful. In the view of the lay first time reader, it left a bad taste for the whole epic. So much so that I was reluctant to start on ManimEgalai. I will ride on your dismissal to add justification to my postponing that epic :P

But I don't get what is the foreign-tradition in this whole thing.(i.e. Manimekalai vs. SivacintAmaNi). Thanks for the efforts to translates the poem, I get a feel of the difference (from Shelley). But I am still trying to see what is native about the poem you quoted which isn't there in Shelley.

To be precise...

combine classical allusions with a very English (or Scottish) expression

....which was not the case in Shelley's time, right ? An example....?

06-17-2008, 05:29 PM	#40
PNCarl Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 406 Senior Member	Didactism-la ivvaLO matter irukkA. As always, thanks for the info podalangai. This isn't universally true - Tamil poetry, too, can be awful when it tries to artifically root itself in a foreign tradition, as a comparison of Manimegalai (incredibly bad didacticism) and Sivaga Sintamani (incredibly beautiful didacticism) shows. Ok. Haven't had the chance to read either. I just read a SilappadhikAram-for-beginners book. And the last kaaNdam kind of dragged. Not entirely because of any didacticism but also because of repetitive, seemingly empty, paens and a near complete lack of drama (atleast in comparison to the previous kaaNdam). But at the very end there is also a tightly packed and stuff didactic passage which seems like ThirukkuRaL quick-reader in the sense that there so much content overlap. But I didn't find it enjoyable at all. It sounded so much like a sermon and seemed to sucked out what makes the kuRaL beautiful. In the view of the lay first time reader, it left a bad taste for the whole epic. So much so that I was reluctant to start on ManimEgalai. I will ride on your dismissal to add justification to my postponing that epic :P But I don't get what is the foreign-tradition in this whole thing.(i.e. Manimekalai vs. SivacintAmaNi). Thanks for the efforts to translates the poem, I get a feel of the difference (from Shelley). But I am still trying to see what is native about the poem you quoted which isn't there in Shelley. To be precise... combine classical allusions with a very English (or Scottish) expression ....which was not the case in Shelley's time, right ? An example....?
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