Thursday, April 12, 2012

Translation of Kangal Neeye from Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal

A mellifluous melody 
You are my eyes and the zephyr as well.
You are the pillar and you are in every particle.
You are the colors and the sky's splendour.
You are my flesh and my soul.
A thousand night's dream and a dream come true.
You are the avenger of my sorrows.
I melted down myself to shape you up,
you are all me and nothing else. 
I held your face as my slate,
kissed it a thousand times
and wrote a beautiful sonnet.
You used your drool, the sacred water,
as a correction tool
to make improvements to it.
This minute, I wished you grew up and held me.
The very next moment, I wished you shrunk down
and remain an infant.
Like the robe swinging on my shoulders
you swing on your crib all day forever.
You are the first scholar
to speak in a multitude of languages.
Better than the musical genius, the king of Lanka,
you are my son, the maestro,
who makes music out of your gibberish.
Before I moved myself,
I saw my heavens in your dimpled cheeks.
Before i twitched myself, I gave my entire self
for that silken feel at my grip. 
When I see you have moved away from me,
I fret, and wish to get you back to my fetus.
 
The life is a long path... Shelter your journey
with the cerulean sky as your shack.
 
With those murals, you are my Ravi Varma.
During your hunger pangs,
you are mankind's mystery,
who takes refuge in a mother.
You are any mother's swelling pride.
Leap a bunch of seas, and hundreds of mounts,
'cos I bore you doing so.
Hope you live a thousand years, outlasting aches
and with resistance to pandemics,
and conquering boundless boundaries.

Started on: Jan 04, 2012
Closed on: Apr 06, 2012


This is the longest that I have ever taken to translate/render a song from Tamil to English. Term the song as mesmerizing, beautiful, simple yet strong, moving, fascinating--all  credit goes to G V Prakash Kumar, Thamarai, and the singer Sittara for their wonderful job! Every aspect of this song has held me back and has stunned me everytime I try to get to work on this.

41 comments:

Kavi said...

Lady... you did a beautiful translation... credit goes to whoever groomed you such

reNUka said...

Hi Kavi, Thanks very much for your comment. I felt very elated with the way you wrote your comment! :-)

Balaji Srinivasan said...

Delightful turn of phrases. :)
I haven't heard this song yet.

reNUka said...

Yes. A very beautiful song. Please do listen to it! :-)

Anonymous said...

Great translation, I am of Tamil descent brought up in the UK and these translation really help me look into the deeper meaning. However I listened to the song while I was reading your translation and maybe because English isn't your first language, I felt the translation lacked poetry; it was very bare bones. Honesty, yes Tamil has stunning poetry that is sometimes hard to translate to a newer language like English however English itself has stunning poetry that could have been woven into the translation of this song.
Great effort none the less.

reNUka said...

Hi anon,
Thanks very much for your honest words! I do have that regret of not doing a neat job of this translation.
Thanks once again!

Yash said...

Renuka,

Wonderful job. Don't know how you was able to do. Because this song is such deeper in meaning and you have conveyed fully.

Cheers

reNUka said...

Thanks Yasodarran! :-)

Unknown said...

i love this song very much...this is mobile ringtone

reNUka said...

Yes Divakar... It is a beautiful song!

Parthiban said...

Awesome :)work. I like this song very much.

actually I was searching this song in YouTube with English subtitle but I couldn’t find it. Finally I got it from you.

These English lyrics can make understand the value of Mothers love and Tamil linguistic forte to other people

Thanks a lot..!!

NAVYA LISA CHARLES said...


THIS IS PERFECT,ONLY A WOMAN CAN MAKE SUCH A PERFECT TRANSLATION.......THE DISTILLED ESSENCE OF MOTHERHOOD.......

reNUka said...

Thanks Parthiban and Navya! :-)

nikhil said...

Enter your comment...very good translation..I am not a Tamil speaker ..so I was searching for translation of this song..your translation really stands out among all other translations..keep it up.

reNUka said...

Thanks! :-)

Udhaya Chandran Rajendran said...

Cheers to you and your translation ;)

Unknown said...

thank you Renuka

reNUka said...

Thanks, Udhaya Chandran and Akhil! :-)

Anonymous said...

Super !! Super !!!! Super Translation. No words to explain the great translation. Thank you..I already listen this song 100 + times...

Without your translation I may never understand the depth and beauty of the lines ..

Unknown said...

Sooo very well translated ....now I can choreograph the dance ....

Unknown said...

I read 3 translations for this song and yours is the best. It does justice to the song.
Very well written. Please translate more songs.

I do some song translation myself. Will be good to have a chat.
My blog is spearspeech.blogspot.com

oxienally said...

Your mode of describing the whole thing in this piece of writing is actually fastidious, every one can easily understand it, Thanks a lot.
https://www.drozus.com

Anonymous said...

https://youtu.be/n6bIPWpQ6nY

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your translation!

reNUka said...

Thank you, Unknown, Anon, and oxienally!

reNUka said...

Anon,
And yeah...
I have seen this cover video by Sithara: https://youtu.be/n6bIPWpQ6nY

Really beautiful!

Unknown said...

Great work

reNUka said...

Thanks, Unknown!

Sneahal Paresh said...

Iguess this sums it more than mother could feel.... astonishingly found the song timely as my elder one is going abroad for his masters. and may be he might settle away from home. hats off to as tamil has its deep sense when it comes to words. A translation to english literary kills its essence but i guess this translation itself has created its own poetry. Loads of luck and joy to you All the best Sneahal Paresh

Ramya Nair said...

Thank you Renuka...
I was in love with the music and Sithara's voice.. but after getting your translation I was crying .. . the depth of lyrics.. no words.
Thank you for this

micky said...

Thanks a lot renuka. You did a wonderful job.👍

Anonymous said...

Hi @reNUka

It took me a long time to hear this song, but it didn't take long to understand emotion in it through your work

Thank You! :)

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reNUka said...

Thanks to Sneahal Paresh, Ramya Nair, micky, and anon! :-)

Jay said...

Wow. Lovely translation. I'm a Tamilian, yet needed some help which brought me to your page. Lol.

Incredible work, Renuka.

Can't believe I'm listening to this song only in 2022, thanks to being abroad for over two decades. ��

Mesmerizing number. Thanks again!!

Anonymous said...

Luvly Translation ❤️

Anonymous said...

A mothers feelings in a song

Anonymous said...

I am a malayalee and I use this song for my baby to sleep. I wondered where I could find meaning of lyrics. And I found a perfect translation. Wonderful job !!!!

Hareesh said...

Excellent translation. No words to appreciate your efforts.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for the effort.
Greetings from Austin, TX.

reNUka said...

Thanks to Jay, Hareesh, and the other four anons! :-)