Thread by @jeysundhar_d

After Andal, if anyone expressed as much love for Krishna in Tamil literature, it was Bharati! While his songs on Krishna are well known, his translation of the Bhagavad Gita is quite helpful, especially for beginners.
#HBDBharathi

Several Bharati songs have found their way to movies, a lot of them in K Balachander movies. One of my favorites is Theertha Karaiyinile.

Bharati's muse Kannamma (Perhaps a female form of Kannan/Krishna) promised to meet him in the garden of Shenbaga flowers (Magnolia Champaca).

And then stood him up.

So, drenched in pain, the pain of Viraha, Bharati writes this song. Let me post it in parts and post the translation.

If you'd like to follow it with the song playing in the background, here's the wonderful composition by MSV from Varumayin Niram Sigappu.

It's very simple musically...SPB pours his soul into it, unplugged except for the occasional guitar strumming.

Only the 1st two stanzas of the song featured in the movie. We'll look the other two as well.

Since Bharati has monopoly over his poetry, my translation will be prosaic, so bear with me.

தீர்த்தக் கரையினிலே - தெற்கு மூலையில்

செண்பகத் தோட்டத்திலே,
பார்த்திருந்தால் வருவேன் - வெண்ணிலாவிலே
பாங்கியோ டென்று சொன்னாய்.

You told me you'd come, if I waited for you in the Shenbaga/Champaka garden, in the south end of the banks of the pond.

வார்த்தை தவறிவிட்டாய் - அடி கண்ணம்மா!
மார்பு துடிக்கு தடீ!
பார்த்த விடத்திலெல்லாம் - உன்னைப்போலவே
பாவை தெரியு தடீ!

Kannamma! You broke your word!
My heart trembles in pain.

Wherever I look, I see only your image.

As Vaali once said, the song gains value in how it's picturised.
Here K Balachander captures the line
"Wherever I look, I see only your image",

by showing Sridevi by the side of the pond and her "reflection" in the pond's water.

See for yourself.

This is the same line of thought from Bharati's Nandalala song where he sees Krishna's black color in the feather of the crow and His green color in the trees around him.

காக்கைச் சிறகினிலே நந்தலாலா-நின்றன்
கரியநிறந் தோன்றுதையே நந்தலாலா

But getting back to Theerthakkariyinile. Bharati's inconsolable. Kannamma's deceit is having not only an emotional, but a physical reaction from him.

There is a shift of thought from what Kannamma promised, and the impact her deceit is having on Bharati.
To capture the shift, MSV does a strumming of the guitar and changes the progression of the tune ever so slightly.

Listen to it here.

After the shift begins the next stanza.

மேனி கொதிக்கு தடீ! - தலை சுற்றியே
வேதனை செய்கு தடீ!

My body burns, (a feverish fervour, shall we say?), my head spins and torments me.

வானி லிடத்தை யெல்லாம் - இந்த வெண்ணிலா
வந்து தழுவுது பார்!

The moon is embracing all the space in the sky...(Remember that Kannamma promised to show up in the sky? Now, even the moon has come and Kannamma's not there.)

மோனத் திருக்கு தடீ! இந்த வையகம்
மூழ்கித் துயிலினிலே,

The entire world is silent, deep in sleep.

(Is this a literal sleep as it's night, or is it the metaphorical sleep of not realising Krishna? I leave that to you to interpret)

நானொருவன் மட்டிலும் - பிரி வென்பதோர்
நகரத் துழலுவதோ?

Should I be the only one suffering in this hell of separation from you? (While the rest of the world is in deep slumber?)

With that the song concludes in the movie, but Bharati's composition has 2 more stanzas.

But let's leave that for another day.

#HBDBharathi

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