The Kural · Chapter
CXVIII: The Wasting of the Eyes Through Wistful Longing explained
The heroine laments the torment of her eyes, which first beheld her beloved and now suffer endlessly from longing and separation.
What happens
The heroine laments the torment of her eyes, which first beheld her beloved and now suffer endlessly from longing and separation. She reproaches her eyes for their reckless gaze that led to inconsolable grief, and observes that even strangers can read her hidden sorrow through her sleepless, telltale eyes.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
The chapter explores the intense emotional suffering of a lover separated from her beloved, highlighting the consuming nature of romantic attachment.
The Vanity of Worldly Life
The heroine's eyes, which brought her both joy and incurable grief, illustrate the transient and painful nature of worldly desires and attachments.
Characters to notice
- Bouderie
The heroine, personifying the pangs of separation and wistful longing, speaks of her eyes' betrayal and grief.
Key passages
“Why do my Eyes complain to me today? This inconsolable grief hath come even upon me only through their showing to me my beloved.”
The heroine questions why her eyes reproach her, as her unbearable sorrow stems solely from them having revealed her lover to her.
Opening lines establish the central metaphor of the eyes as both the cause and witness of her anguish.
“After bequeathing to me the incurable grief that consumeth me, my Eyes have now dried up, having exhausted their store of tears.”
Her eyes, after giving her this endless grief, have themselves run out of tears and withered away.
Illustrates the reciprocal suffering of the eyes and the self, emphasizing the totality of her despair.
“Verily there be those who love without being loved! For here are my eyes which know no repose for not seeing him.”
Truly, some love without being loved in return; my eyes find no rest because they cannot see him.
Highlights the unrequited or unfulfilled nature of her longing, a key theme in the chapter.