Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

Canto 7: Thiruvempavai / Song of Awakening by Manikkavacagar

Verse 1

we walk on these streets
singing of Him
the one with no beginning                   no end

and you light-filled, large-eyed maiden
lie unaware, steeped in slumber
oblivious
to effulgence

are your ears iron-clad, so want of listening
that you cannot hear His cosmic sound?

behold here’s another who has surpassed it all—
stunned forgetting
falling
swooning
losing herself
into the awakening

behold yourself

strive

rise

 

 

Note

Thiruvempavai was sung as an outpouring of devotion in Thiruvannamalai, one of the jyotirlingams, where Siva resides as elemental fire. Thiruvempavai consists of twenty songs in lines of eight, and is traditionally sung by unmarried young girls during the month of Margazhi (December –January) and is part of the larger paavai ritual. The metre of the kalippa verse that these songs embody are each a beckoning to open the door,  seek the Lord and invoke His mercy. The door here is layered in symbolism, from the factual to the metaphysical.

 

 

 

 

← Shobhana Kumar

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