Love Letters to Poetry | Couplets from The Tirukkural

Apr 4

Hello everyone! Happy National Poetry Month! Today, I'm sharing with you a few lines from the Tirukkural, also known as Kural. It is an ancient Tamil language poetic text that is more than 2000 years old. The Kural was composed by Tiruvalluvar. Its consists of 1330 short couplets which are called Kurals.

The Kurals are spread across two lines and seven words, with four words on the first line and three lines on the second. The text is divided into three books with aphoristic teachings on virtue, wealth, and love.

Here are two Kurals for you.

Punarchi pazhaguthal venda unarchithaan
Natpam kizhamai tharum

Even with a few meetings, if two hearts feel the union, the friendship that ensues can be long-lasting. - Kural 785

Mugamnaga natpadhu natpanru nenjathu
Aganaga natpadhu natpu.

True friendship brings joy in the inside, which can fill our whole soul. - Kural 786

Suma Subramaniam

Suma Subramaniam is the author of She Sang For India: How M.S. Subbulakshmi Used Her Voice For Change (Macmillan FSG, 2022), Namaste Is A Greeting (Candlewick Press, 2022), A Bindi Is A Dot (Kids Can Press, 2024), V. Malar series (Candlewick Press, 2024 and 2025), My Name is Long As a River (Penguin Workshop, Fall 2024), as well as Fairies (Capstone, 2021), and Centaurs (Capstone, 2021), with more books forthcoming. She’s also the contributing author of The Hero Next Door (Penguin Random House, 2019). Her poems have been published in the Young People’s Poetry edition of Poetry Magazine from Poetry Foundation. She is a volunteer at We Need Diverse Books, DiverseVerse, and SCBWI Western Washington. Suma has an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

https://sumasubramaniam.com/

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