Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/23

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THE KURAL

In the translation of the titles of chapters also Pope has been singularly unhappy in many instances. Thus the headings, The knowledge of power (48)[1], Knowing the place (50), The right sceptre (55), Power in speech (65), Power in action (67), The knowledge of indications (71), The might of hatred (87), Knowing the quality of hate (88), among others, are very unfortunate renderings of the original and do not give the reader any idea of what is contained in the respective chapters. A comparison of the translations of the verses and chapter headings of Drew and Pope given above, with those given in this book will show how much the former are lacking in force; and yet the latter do not render all the vigour and force of the original.

TIRUVALLUVAR

We know very little about the life of our poet. As in the case of so many of the world's greatest men of the past, we have only to


  1. The figures within brackets to this para refer to chapters. Everywhere else in the preface they will refer to the number of the verse except where chapters are indicated by the letters Ch.
viii