Love, then, people of this earth! / Ādhalinār kādhal seyveer, ulagatheerē! (Bhārati Arupathāru 49)
Excerpted from Bhārati Arupathāru (பாரதி அறுபத்தாறு), an autobiographical and philosophical work by Subramania Bhārati —the fiery early twentieth-century poet-reformer who dragged Tamil verse out of rigid scholastic formalism and into the street—these verses stage an ecstatic revolt against human finitude. Written in brisk, declamatory cadences meant to be sung or spoken aloud, the sequence refuses abstract theology, locating transcendence entirely within human connection and artistic creation.
English translations of Bhārati often struggle with his rhetorical height: rendered too literally, his exclamations and imperative calls risk sounding Victorian or overly sentimental to a contemporary ear. In my translation, I sought to preserve his bardic urgency without softening his argument into pious platitude. To achieve this, I leaned on anaphora ("It is in love..."), compressed the imagery into concrete, tactile transformations ("the quarry to form"), and used stepped visual indentation to score the poem’s rising momentum. For me, translating this passage from Bharathi Arupathaaru is an attempt to capture that defiance in English: a refusal to accept decay as the final word, insisting instead on love as the engine of all life.
It is in love, humankind comes together in embrace.
And in embrace, the sum of human grief is undone.
It is in love, humankind is compelled to verse,
its voice to song, the quarry to form,
and every art to life.
Love, then, people of this earth!
Love with all you have!
For is love not the greatest joy of all?
It is in love, we slip the grip of decay, outgrow mortal dread.
And it is in love, death is revealed a lie.
காதலினால் மானுடர்க்குக் கலவியுண்டாம் / Kādhalinal mānudarkkuk kalaviyundām
கலவியிலே மானுடர்க்குக் கவலை தீரும் / Kālaviyilē mānudarkkuk kavalai theerum
காதலினால் மானுடர்க்குக் கவிதையுண்டாம் / Kādhalinal mānudarkkuk kavithaiyundām
கானமுண்டாம், சிற்ப முதற் கலைகளுண்டாம் / gānamundām, sirpa mudhar kalaigalundăm
ஆதலினாற் காதல் செய்வீர், உலகத்தீரே! / Ādhalinār kādhal seyveer, ulagatheerē!
அஃதன்றோ இவ்வுலகத் தலைமையின்பம்? / Ahdhandrö ivvulagath thalaimaiyinbam?
காதலினால் சாகாமலிருத்தல் கூடும் கவலைபோம் / Kādhalinãl sāgāmaliruthtal koodum kavalaiböm
அதனாலே மரணம் பொய்யாம் / Adhanāle maranam poiyām