Tamil to English translation, BETA
ஒரு வண்ணத்துப் பூச்சி எந்தன் வழி தேடி வந்தது
அதன் வண்ணங்கள் மட்டும் இங்கு விரலோடு உள்ளது
Ammani feels Chenthil’s translation of the above lines are not adequate/crisp enough. Let me give it a shot…
A butterfly once came my way,
Alas, only traces of colours on my fingers stay.
The next few lines of this song are pretty good too: I touched fire. Traded (opened a store) on a deserted island. Built a house of sand
Such acts of brilliant futility.
(If you liked this, you might want to read some of my other translations: (Bharathi’s poems) 1, 2, 3)
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a writer, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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September 19th, 2007 - 23:32
Ah. Nice. Retained the meaning and managed to rhyme
Wondering if we can capture “en vazhi thedi” better…
A butterfly came searching for me (came flitting towards me?),
leaving wisps of colors lingering on my fingers…(mere wisps of colors stay back on my fingers?)
September 20th, 2007 - 20:31
By some quirk, I am not able to comment in my own blog. Your attempt is the best so far, will post it on my blog when the blogger gods are happy.
September 21st, 2007 - 17:01
Good one, this. I’d actually like it more without ‘alas.’ The wistfulness is best left unopened.
Also, the present tense in the second line which is quite significant, is lost a bit. But then…
January 30th, 2008 - 11:41
I want tamil to english translation soft ware Or Books
February 24th, 2010 - 20:17
Stumbled on to your blog searching for something.
My translation on this would look something as
A butterfly came searching, on my path
Only its colors, my fingers here hath
I also notice you have some of Bharathi’s poems as well. Good translations above and on some of the Bharathi ones. I intend to translate sometime Suttum vizhi chudar thaan and Kaani Nilam vaendum. Skipping them here now to avoid being influenced. Will come back once I translate and hone them.
I did try a few short translations. They are at
http://thoughtrickles.blogspot.com/search/label/Subramanya%20Bharathi
They aren’t metric equivalents, but very close to the meaning.