The Kural · Chapter
CXXIV: The Wasting Away of Her Lovely Form explained
The heroine laments her beloved's departure, describing how her beauty fades—her eyes avoid flowers, her arms grow thin and lose their bracelets—while the hero recalls how even a slight separation during an embrace caused her pallor and tea
What happens
The heroine laments her beloved's departure, describing how her beauty fades—her eyes avoid flowers, her arms grow thin and lose their bracelets—while the hero recalls how even a slight separation during an embrace caused her pallor and tears.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
The chapter explores the intense emotional and physical effects of separation between lovers, highlighting the depth of conjugal love.
The Vanity of Worldly Life
The wasting away of the heroine's form underscores the transient nature of beauty and worldly happiness in the face of emotional pain.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“My eyes think on him who left me saying that it was but to increase my happiness that he went, and are ashamed to show their face before flowers.”
My eyes, remembering the beloved who claimed his departure would bring me greater joy, are too ashamed to even look at flowers.
The heroine's eyes cannot bear the beauty of flowers, as they remind her of her absent lover.
“The arms that swelled with joy on the nuptial day now look as if they would proclaim his parting to all the world.”
My arms, once full of joy on our wedding day, now seem to announce his absence to everyone.
The contrast between the arms' former happiness and current state emphasizes the depth of her loss.
“Wouldst thou obtain glory, O my Heart? Then run to the cruel one and tell him of the bruit that hath arisen here from the wasting away of my arm.”
If you seek honor, my Heart, go quickly to that cruel man and inform him of the rumors caused by my emaciated arm.
The heroine personifies her heart, urging it to convey her suffering to the beloved.
“As we were embracing one another one day, I but relaxed my arms a little, and the forehead of that artless one grew pale at once!”
Once, while we embraced, I loosened my arms slightly, and her innocent forehead immediately turned pale.
The hero recalls how even the slightest separation during an embrace caused her visible distress.
“But a single breath of wind cut its way between us during our embrace, and the blood fled at once from her large eyes that are full even as the rain-cloud.”
Just a breeze slipped between us as we held each other, and the color drained instantly from her rain-cloud-like eyes.
The hero's memory emphasizes her extreme sensitivity to any hint of separation.