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B.A English Literature
3rd Year 6th Semester
Elective Paper
GREEN STUDIES (AG46D)
Unit 1: Indian Ecocriticism (Tinai- Kurinchi, Neidal, Mullai Marutam and Palai)
1.1.Introducing concepts of Indian ecocriticism –Tinai - significance- ecoregions
1.2 What She Said - Tevakulattar, Kurunthokai (page 3 )
1.3 What She Said to her Girlfriend - Kapilar, Akanaanooru (page 82 )
1.4 What She Said - Kapilar , Akananooru 318 A,K.Ramanujan (page 14)
1.5 What Her Girl Friend Said, the Lover within Earshot, Behind a Fence- Uloccanar. Narrinai (page 63)
1.1. Introducing concepts of Indian Ecocriticism –
Tinai
- significance- ecoregions
The
term Ecocriticism was possibly first coined in 1978 by William Rueckert. He
used this term in his essay ‘Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism’.
He defined it as ‘the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the
study of literature’.
Ecocriticism in India:
Nirmal
Selvamony at Madras Christian College introduced a course in Tamil Poetics in
1980. This was the beginning of Ecocriticism in its present and modern sense in
India. S. William Meeker was the first to use and introduce the expression
‘literary ecology’ which is a term that refers to the study of biological themes
and the relationship that appears in literature and ecology in literary work. He
states that “ecology is an ancient theme in art and literature”.
******
1.2 What She Said - Tevakulattar, Kurunthokai (page 3 )
Poem:
Bigger than earth, certainly,
higher than the sky,
more unfathomable than the waters
is this love for this man
of the mountain slopes
where bees make rich honey
from the flowers of the kurinci
that has such black stalks.
Summary:
What
the heroine said to her friend about her love for the hero, as he listened
nearby.
The
heroine said this, realizing that the hero was on the other side of the fence,
in response to her friend who blamed the hero for not coming and marrying her.
The kurinci flower and the
mountain scene clearly mark this as a kurinci poem about lovers’ union. The
union is not described or talked about; it is enacted by the “inset” scene of
the bees making honey from the flowers of the kurinci. The lover is not only
the lord of the mountain; he is like the mountain he owns. Describing the scene
describes his passion. The kurinci, being a plant that takes about twelve years
to come to flower, carries a suggestion assimilating the tree to the young
tropical heroine who speaks the poem.
The poem opens with large
abstractions about her love: her love is bigger than earth and higher than the
sky. But it moves toward the concreteness of the blacks talked kurinci, acting
out by analogue the virgin’s progress from abstraction to experience. .. This
progression (from the basic cosmic elements to the specific component of a
landscape) is also the method of the entire intellectual framework behind the
poetry: moving from first elements to native elements to human feelings.
******
1.3 What She Said to her Girlfriend - Kapilar, Akanaanooru (page 82)
Poem:
In his country,
summer west wind blows
flute music
through bright beetle-holes in the waving bamboos.
The sweet sound of waterfalls is continuous,
dense as drums.
The urgent lowing voices of a herd of stags
are oboes,
the bees on the flowering slopes
become lutes.
Excited by such teeming voices,
an audience of female monkeys
watches in wonder
the peacock in the bamboo hill
sway and strut
like a dancer
making an entrance
on a festival stage.
He had a garland on his chest,
a strong bow in his grip,
arrow already chosen,
and he asked which way
the elephant went
with an arrow buried in its side.
He stood at the edge
of a ripe-eared millet field.
But, among all the people
who saw him standing there,
why is it
that I alone
lie in bed
in this harsh night,
eyes streaming,
arms growing lean?
Summary:
Many
girls look at him. Among them I am only a girl laying on bed without sleeping,
with tears in eyes and feel leaning my shoulders, what happened to me, the
heroine asks her friend-maid.
As a girl dances in yard, peacock
is dancing in the forest. Western wind blows through holes in bamboo-plant made
by wasps making flute music. Water-falls makes the drum-music. Deer are making
trumpet-like music. Bees in flowers are making yaz-melody, a kind of musical
instrument. Hearing hear these hind of music peacock is dancing. Female monkeys
are watching in astonishment. He is the man of such a beautiful forest.
He appears with bow and shooting
arrows in hand aiming at an elephant which attacked him earlier. He is coming
inquiring the way in which the elephant escapes. On his way he was standing in
side of a millet-field wearing flower-garland.
Many girls saw him in this pose.
They didn’t care about him. I am only a girl thinking about him, lying on my
bed, tearing in my eyes and feeling in shoulder. Hello, my friend, why I am
suffering?
******
1.4 What She Said - Kapilar, Akananooru 318 A,K.Ramanujan (page 14)
Translator:
Ramanujan
owes his place in modern Indian poetry in English not only to works like
Relations, Striders and Second Sight (1986) but also to his translations from
classical poetry in Tamil and Kannada. As in his Interior Landscape which is a
translation of the famous Tamil classic of the Sangam Period, Kuruntokai, we
find in Poems of Love and War (1985) excellent pieces from a variety of
poetical works like Kuruntokai, Purananuru and Ainkurunuru of the Sangam Age
translated into English.
Poem:
When the loving-girl relieved of
tension? The friend-maid says to the man of her lady.
You, the man of my lady are the
man of the mountain with pleasure of music sound sounds: music of waterfall and
music of bees at a time as the instrumental music of band and Yal.
You are coming here in thundering
night-time as a single man through a narrow mountain route where deer,
elephant, snake and tiger pass.
You can get her enjoyment today,
if you like; but tomorrow onward not to come by this way. Today as soon as you
reach home, you must blow your music horn; that you used to call your hunting
dogs parted in bamboo jungle, as an indication of safety.
Explanation:
Highlands! Wild deer and
elephants are coming along the small path you are coming from. There is thunder
in the sky. There is also a fear of snakes and tigers. You come at night. You
are coming alone.
The song of the waterfall will be
heard in your country. You can also hear the song of bees. It's like playing a
whole harp together. You are the leader of the hill country with many such ripe
prides.
Want to join her? ok join in
Don't come tonight. If it comes, we will suffer. When you come back to see us
today, Sir, when you go hunting after going to your village, blow the horn to
call your dogs that have strayed in the bamboo forest, blow that horn. We will
be relieved to hear that you have gone safely. – The friend asks the leader.
Summary:
You
come alone in the fearful night, when forest animals walk on the paths,
elephants roam, loud thunder roars on the skies above, and there are snakes and
tigers on the narrow paths.
Oh man from the country with fruitful
mountains, ancient victories, wide spaces, and music of waterfalls that mingle
with the sounds of humming bees, like drumbeats that mix with the music of lute
strings!
If you desire marriage, you will
get it. But one thing! From today
onward, do not come at night!
Should you come, for my confusion
and suffering to go away, when you leave after visiting me, once you reach your
small town filled with boulders, blow it a little bit, your long horn that you
use in the bamboo-filled jungle to signal your position to your straying hunters
and dogs.
******
1.5 What Her Girl Friend Said, the Lover within Earshot, Behind a Fence- Uloccanar. Narrinai (page 63)
Poem:
On the new sand
where fishermen,
their big nets
ripped apart by an angry sea,
dry their great hauls of fish
in a humming neighborhood
of meat smells,
a laurel tree blossoms
all at once in bright clusters
fragrant as a festival,
but this unfair town
is noisy with gossip.
And what with an unfair Mother too
keeping strict watch over us,
will our love just perish here
in sallow patches,
this love for our man
of the seashore
where petals
loosened by the traffic of birds
mix with the mud of the backwaters,
where the big-maned chariot horses galloping there
are washed clean
by the waves of the sea?
Summary:
Thalaivan
and Thalaivi have met each other, fallen in love. The have made secret night
meetings (most probably made love). Then the girl is struck by love sickness.
The mother of the girl notices it and keeps her in a house arrest (gossips are.
This makes it difficult for the Thalaivan to meet Thalaivi. Thalaivi here urges the Thalaivan who is
hiding behind trees to be bold and come forward and marry he.
To understand the structure of
the poem, I felt that it is necessary to understand the whole poem line by
line. So I have broken my head for a week (surely an exaggeration) and given
here a word by word translation
Explanation:
In constant
motion-sea-(caused)suffer-(to the)big-net-(using) parathavar (resident of mullai
tract ) huge quantity(of) – fish-(being) dried-(in) new- sands – there(that
place), sound of excitement-(in the)coastal village- (with) smell of fish
-(where) punnai tree (with)festival(like)-fragrance- renowned-cluster of
flowers- opens(blossoms)- emits fragrance loud noisy – village – (which
is)virtue – no (virtue less);that’s why, virtue-less-mother(‘s)-(has
set)fear(ful)-trap paleness(love sickness)-become-extinct-will it (would the
love(of chieftain of the sea) get extinct in love sickness) birds-with
force(sit and)-bend (the branches) under weight-flower-(is)tossed-(into)mud(dy)
marsh/backwater-salt (salty backwater)-remain-(on)tight bond- horse (muddy
marsh on horse bound to the chariot waves-cause(by)-sea-cleanse(mud
on the horse) by wash abundance-sea-chieftain of the sea-happened-our
-relationship(love).(should come as continuation of the line with paleness).
******
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