Friday, July 08, 2005

Vairamuthu's lyrics in Ayutha Ezhithu..specially Yakkai Thiri

This man is a genius when it comes to poetry. i realised the power of his lyrics when listening
to the tamil version of the song Fanaah (from the movie Yuva). each word is pregnant with
meaning. u need not be in love to feel the power.truly, pen is mightier than the sword. i have
tried my hand at dissecting the lyrics for those of you who do not know tamil. and those who
know, please correct me if i have made a mistake somewhere.
the best part of this song is the beautiful use of the urdu word Fanaah. I used to think that
fanaah was just some random chant. nopes people, its loaded with meaning..check the following
link
http://www.lazygeek.net/gb/archives/2004/04/29/funda_on_fanah.html
yes people its nirvana. and nirvana is what everyone is looking for in this world. from the
testosterone charged teenager who headbangs to led zep, to the middle aged family person who
looks for solace from family pressures in work and vice versa, to the tottering oldie who turns
to bhaja govindam, its nirvana that is the raison de etre. vairamuthu says that love leads one to
such an exalted state. now 'Dont u want somebody to love???'...;)
Now, to the lyrics. The translation is provided below each line.

fanaa....... fanaa.........
"Salvation........Salvation......"

yaakkai thiri kaadhal sudar - anbae
"O love,The body is the wick and love is the flame,"

jeevan nadhi kaadhal kadal - nenjae
"My heart,Life is a river whilst love is the ocean"

piRavi pizhai kaadhal thirutham nenjae
"My heart,The sin of birth is rectified by love"

irudhayam kal kaadhal siRpam anbae
"o love, The heart is mere stone whilst love is the sculpture"

yaakai thiri kaadhal sudar - fanaa
"The body is the wick and love is the flame"

thoduvoam thodarvoam padarvoam maRavoam thuRavoam
"We will touch love, we will continue love, we will spread love, we will not forget love , we
will not renounce love"

thoduvoam thodarvoam padarvoam maRavoam iRavoam
"We will touch love, we will continue love, we will spread love, we will not forget love , we
will not die"

thoduvoam thodarvoam padarvoam maRavoam uRavoam
"We will touch love, we will continue love, we will spread love, we will not forget love , we
will develop relations"

jenmam vidhai, kaadhal pazham
"Birth is the seed love is the fruit"

loagam dhvaitham, kaadhal adhvaidham
"The world is dual, but love is non-dual"

sarvam soonyam kaadhal pinniyam
"everything is zero but love is infinite"

maanudam maayam kaadhal amaram
"humanity is an illusion while love is eternal"

ulagathin kaadhal ellaam ondrae ondrae adhu
"In this world, love is only one"

uLLangaL maaRi maaRi paayaNam poagum
"The bodies keep changing and go on far away journeys"

What interested me was the use of the words dwaitha and advaitha in the song. The dwaitha and advaitha concepts must be known to you from your social science textbooks in school.
Specifically i am referring to a chapter called Bhakthi and Sufi movement (that was what I was
taught). For the sake of continuity i will summarise these two schools of thought. The dwaitha
philosophy clearly stresses upon the duality of man and God. on the other hand, the advaitha
philosophy states that the finite and infinite (man and God) are one and the same except for a
screen of illusion separating them. For more info on such topics check out the following link
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9410/hindu1.html
what does vairamuthu mean by saying that the world is dual but love is non-dual? my
interpretation is this: everything in this world has a dual. for example, male-female, fire-water
etc and the list goes on. on the other hand, love cannot be characterised as 'adjective' love.
(adjective can be anything, male/female/animal) A hidden attribute may also be that Vairamuthu is suggesting that love is divine/infinite too.

before i close this topic, let me just give u a list of tamil songs i feel are nice....
1) Endrendum Punnagai (Alaipayuthey) (the same as Humdum Suniyore in Saathiya)--> nice mix of techno beats and rap
2) Hey Goodbye nanba (Ayutha Ezhithu) (hindi equivalent=Hey Khudahafiz (Yuva))
3) Ale Ale (boys)
4) Ennaikonjam Matri (Kaaka kaaka)
5( Uyirin uyire (Kaaka Kaaka)--> racy beats
6) Haiyyo Pathikichu (Rhythm)--> sexy song, sexy singer (vasundhara Das), sexy artiste (ramya Krishnan)
7) Elangatru Veesude (Pithamagan) --> beautiful song
8) Chinna Chinnadai (mounam Pesiyathey)--> check the video of this if you want to see the tamil version of creed in 'my sacrifice'
9) Pachai Nirame (Alaipayuthey)--> melodious
10) Yaar Yaar Shivam (Anbe Shivam)

guess thats it for now folks...till the next time i get the inspiration to write, Shabba
Khair.....

27 comments:

Rohan said...

This has left me gasping for breath. Way to go man! :-O

Karthik Subramani said...

I used to watch tamil films many times without understanding the lyrics of the songs ... but one day I got a dvd of 7g rainbow colony and kaka kaka and a few others . Truly amazing lyrics in each one da , I was really captured as a fan of tamil cinema and songs for life !

Yup , A couple of more blogs like these I ll learn some good tamil ... yeladhirda niruthadai ... msk

rajeshkeralam said...

Hello Mr.Deepak,
Great translation...really nice to read both the tamil lyrics and english translation in parallel...so nice man..
esp. i dint know the meaning of pinniyam..
but when I came to know from this I just feel great...the zero and infinite maths...dhwaitha and adhwaitha...what a great comparison...thanks a lot...

Sathiya said...

OMG!!! you enlightened me ! im outta words! vairamuthu sir is a genius.
deepak krishnan!- BIG "thank you"

saarumathi said...

no one other than vairamuthu can do such excellent jobs...useful translation...keep translating many more songs of vairamuthu ...

Venkat Mokkapati said...

Beautiful Tamil lyrics!

imay.. said...

Song for lifetime.....i just enter into a new world whenever i hear this song.....

Muthu said...

You just blew my mind. Trance is the word. Both music and lyrics. This is bloody deep bro. I can see how much this song has impressed you. Vairamuthu n Rahman are epic. Period.

karthikselvam said...

Really amazing, if A.R.Rahman and Vairamuthu sir both join there arts together, then sure its mind blowing...
But only worrying is the real meaning of the lyrics only known to the poet only...
So if vairamuthu sir explains his lyrics in any website then it should be tastier ever...

Unknown said...

It's 2016 and I've just read the translations to this song. It's always been the best club-feel song I've heard but I never for the love of ARR's musical genius thought that the lyrics were so heavy with poetry. Whoaa.. Vairamuthu sir's amazing. The thought of it.. wow.. Thank you so much for the translations.

Unknown said...

You just impressed me man!

saf said...

You made me realize how even more legendary Vairamuthu is. <3 Thank you.
And I had never come across the dwaitha and advaitha concepts in my CBSE schooling. What did you study?
Personally, I liked the words 'pinniyam' and 'amaram' - makes me want to learn my Tamil vocabs, man and of course, the title of this song.
Hoping you'd write more such posts, bc I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Unknown said...

Reading your interpretation felt like meditation to me. That high on life feeling! Hats off to your interpretation. Sensing a strong Bharathi touch here..'maanudam maayam..kadhal amaram' line..

Unknown said...

Omg! I never closely looked at this lyrics before! It's amazing. Thanks for putting this up Deepak.

Archit said...

A really BIG Thank You for sharing a beautiful and deep interpretation of the wonderful lyrics. A great boon for non-Tamil ARR fans :-)

mrb said...

Awesome job, Deepak... Thanks a lot for sharing the meaning... Did not realize this song had such profound meaning.....

Please keep doing this service to all...


On the last line, one small observation, please....

uLLangaL maaRi maaRi paayaNam poagum
"The bodies keep changing and go on far away journeys"

Ullangal might be more apt to refer as minds / hearts, than bodies?

Thanks again.

Unknown said...

Gosh! More than the lyrics your words below struck me at awe! Wishing for your forever to bring more magic ✨

Unknown said...

Wow... I loved the song so deeply without even realising the hidden meanings behind those beautiful lines.. Thanks for exposing the beauty of the lyrics. Thank you...

Anonymous said...

Best translation.Goosebumps.Thanks

Anonymous said...

After PS1, Yaakai Thiri vibe brought me here

Anonymous said...

Wow, the beauty of Tamizh language with Vairamuthu's writing and ARR's magic.

Plus the video is so nostalgic.

Thanks Deepak for putting this together.

It's crazy to think this is been done before 17 years.

Anonymous said...

2k kid here vera level. reels le trend agudhu nu oaatu keten. onnum puriyala. Ipo terinjtkte. Thankyou.

Anonymous said...

Wow listening to this song in a loop after watching PS2, for Trisha of course. Just googled for the meaning n came upon ur explanation. Vairamuthu, the genius! The literal meaning gives goosebumps. Thanks man for the translation! πŸ‘

Anonymous said...

Just wowwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!✨✨

Sachi said...

Wow man beautifully written ✨️πŸ₯° I'm a mallu know a lil tamil but didn't know the word to word meanings of this song. Its been on loop for somedays, and you helped me realize it's meaning πŸ€—πŸ«ΆπŸ½. I knew this song is communicating something real hard, that's why i got a connection to this song.
Once again thanx πŸ™ŒπŸΌ
Keep on write shit like this πŸ’₯🀝

Anonymous said...

Great worl dude!highly impressed

Sreelakshmi Koliyot said...

Amazing.. Thanks a million for this... πŸ’š