Paasuram 4744

Sundara Kandam → கடல் தாவு படலம் (Kaḍal Tāvu Paḍalam — The Ocean-Crossing) → Paasuram 4744

Word by word

புகல் அரும் முழையுள் துஞ்சும் = sleeping in impenetrable dens; பொங்கு உளைச் சீயம் = fierce mane-bristling lions; பொங்கி உகல் அரும் குருதி கக்கி = surging, vomiting unstoppable blood; உள்ளுற நெரிந்து = crushed inward; அகல் இரும் பரவை நாண = making the vast wide ocean itself ashamed; அரற்றுறு குரல = with roaring cries; கல் ஒளி கரப்ப = darkening the light of the rocks; வானை மறைத்தன பறவை எல்லாம் = all the birds blotted out the sky

Meaning

The fierce mane-bristling lions sleeping in their impenetrable dens were crushed inward, vomiting unstoppable torrents of blood. Their dying roars, wide as the vast ocean itself, shamed the ocean with their volume. Then all the birds rose in their masses — darkening the light of the rocks, blotting out the sky.

Insights

Literary: Three orders of creation respond to the roar in cascade: the mountains (4743), the lions (4744), and the birds (4744). Kamban builds the scene in widening circles — stone, beast, sky — until the entire natural world is convulsed. The detail that the dying lions' roars 'shamed the ocean' is a characteristic Kamban inversion: even the death-cry of the creature surpasses the greatest sound in nature.