A couple of mornings ago, I didn't have to think about that question only because I woke up with this Kannadasan song from an old movie playing in my mind.
After breakfast, I emailed a few in the extended family about it. "YouTube helped me pull it up in no time, and I have already played it three times ;)" I wrote to them.
When it comes to Kannadasan's songs, I pay attention to the lyrics, which otherwise I rarely ever do. The man always spoke to me, though I couldn't figure out why. It was well into my life in the US, decades ago, a chance conversation with a colleague who taught English helped me understand the connect.
Poetry is about emotions, she said.
Aha!
Poetry does what prose often does not, and it does that in a mere few verses, sometimes even in a few lines. A poem conveys the emotions that we feel, or want to feel.
Kannadasan did that well for me and millions of other Tamils.
Like in the following two lines in that Apoorva Ragangal song:
ஏன் என்ற கேள்வி ஒன்று என்றைக்கும் தங்கும்A few years ago, back in 2013, I blogged about Kannadasan, which, for whatever reason, continues to draw readers. I quoted from Kannadasan's lyrics in this old song:
மனிதன் இன்ப துன்பம் எதிலும் கேள்விதான் மிஞ்சும்
("Why?" will forever be a question in the mind
Through all sufferings and joys, questions will always remain!)
வாழ்க்கை என்றால் ஆயிரம் இருக்கும்If only I had the abilities to translate that into English!
வாசல்தோறும் வேதனை இருக்கும்
வந்த துன்பம் எது என்றலும்
வாடி நின்றால் ஓய்வதில்லை
உனக்கும் கிழே உள்ளவர் கோடி
நினைத்து பார்த்து நிம்மதி தேடு
I suppose Kannadasan's poetry appealed to many of us because we didn't read them, but listened to the verses. Poetry is to be heard. If English is your language, then you might want to head here, which is my favorite site to listen to poetry in English, some of which are translations. (This post from a couple of days ago was triggered by the poem that I listened to.)
To listen to Kannadasan's poems, well, there is Youtube.
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