Selective Amnesia There was a point to this. But I forgot.

Translation, re-interpretation, the author’s voice and Bharathiyar

Take this poem.

This is Bharathiyar, as himself, writing/singing to the Kannamma he loves. Why would you have a woman’s voice singing it? Why make a duet out of a solo? What a wonderful poem it is, pure metaphor and great simile in line after line, (nearly as good as Shakespeare’s metaphor in Romeo and Juliet “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet is the sun! Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon. It is the east, and Juliet is the sun”) ending with a superlative
“தாரணியில் வானுலகில் சார்ந்திருக்கு மின்பமெல்லாம்
ஓருருவ மாய்ச்சமைந்தாய்! உள்ளமுதமே! கண்ணம்மா!”

How can there even be a doubt about the author’s voice and the singer’s voice? It is purely a man writing to his girl.
Which brings me to the next point: why do people who turn Bharathiyar’s poems into songs leave out some of his best lines?

Oh well. Translation follows, soon.