Oct 132007
Please can someone explain this line?
viNmeengal kan paarkka suriyanum thOnRumO! pugazh maindhan thOnRinAnE
It appears in the song “anbenRa mazhaiyile” from the movie Minsara Kanavu. What fantastic wordplay!
The song is in praise of Christ, as sung by a group of nuns. Does the line mean that Christ’s advent was like the radiance of sunrise against the backdrop of a star-studded sky? Is the “viNmeengal” part a reference to the magi? Do let me know what you think.
No related posts.
The famous son Jesus was born….
When sun rises can any otner stars be seen from earth….
Jesus birth was so significant that Jesus masked all others who were born on the same day…..
Thanks Kannan. That was pretty succinct and apt too. I’m still wondering about the significance of the words “kan paarkka”
Hi, tats a nice line in that song.I always thought it meant to mark the time when Jesus was born along with comparing him to the sun.
The meaning I derive from it goes like this:
“Does the sun ever shine when the stars are twinkling in the skies(meaning its the night time), Jesus(the sun) was born then”
I guess it makes some sense and adds to the previously said meaning.
The question seems to be whether it was “VinmeengaLin” or “VinmeengaLai” that the poet intended to say. I would think the poet had the Magi in mind while he wrote it. The words should have then fallen in place and he should have seen that it can have 2 different meanings. The poet in him should have relished a moment of joyous pride for having communicated 2 true thoughts, one historic and another, poetic with one line. Orrey kallulla rendu maangaaaa!
Might I add this piece of astrotheology here. (Relation of christ to pagan sun gods)
Zeitgeist, the movie.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331
Sol Invictus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus#Sol_Invictus_and_Christianity
Three stars in Orion, Sirius, Winter Solstice (Dec 22-25), Darkness, Light ,precession of equinoxes all added up pretty well. While the overall movie itself is pretty conspiracy theoretic in nature, the similarities were pretty striking. (Watch 10 mins to 35 mins) I visited the official movie page and my skepticism esp. about the astrotheology reduced a bit because of the practical verifiability of most of the claims.
No vk, thats just some old-fashioned monotheistic narrow minded songwriting. One true god and all that crap..
also consider the staunch atheistic bent of the lyricist. ethum comedy-keemedy pannalayae ?!
Regards
Gokul
Scudie: While I do not intend to ascribe the poet any special kind of genius by reading too much into this line, I wouldn’t also call him narrow-minded. Most religious poetry extols only one specific God. In Thiruvasagam, for example, the saint-poet has sung “mattrum or deivam thannai undena ninaithem pemmaar, katrilaadhavaraik kandaal ammanaam anjummaare!” Would you call that narrow-minded?
@Karthik: Thanks, the astro-theological angle was indeed new to me. The links were very informative
@Gokul: Surprises me why / how you detected an atheistic bent in the lyrics. Can you throw more light on it?
No, goks is referring to vairamuthu being an atheist. i wouldn’t read too much into it. he’s just a professional poet. he may do that in his poetry collections but not in wat he has been asked to write about.
@Scudie, its like saying all art forms should be dismissed because they choose a focus object. i don’t see why this should be called narrow minded. don’t know why it can’t be appreciated as just poetry given the written history.
VK,
Diamandu is ‘orey famous’ for truncating a prefix here and a suffix there to fit the meter. Dont take his words as gospel truth(pun unintended!) nor take his sense of imagery at face value.