Sweeter Than Ambrosia: A Kural Conversation with Ian Boyden

Learning to Mirror Delight

With artist, translator, and writer Ian Boyden, I was delighted to speak about children, the birthplace of empathy, and the joys of sulking and reunion as reflected in THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural.

Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:

Material, ambrosia, and delight 4:50
Mirror neurons and the birthplace of empathy 14:18
Our capacity to listen and the Bodhisattva of Compassion 27:43
Waiting like a crane 35:48
Sulking and bliss 55:40

Ian Boyden is a visual artist, translator, and writer. Consistent across his productions are an intense interest in material relevance, place-based thought, and ecology, with a deep awareness of East Asian aesthetics. His work is interdisciplinary, and collaborations have involved a variety of scientists, poets, composers, and other visual artists. He has worked with two Chinese dissident writers and artists, Tsering Woeser and Ai Weiwei. In 2016, Boyden curated the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Fault Line, which led to his most recent book “A Forest of Names.” Boyden was awarded a 2019 NEA Literature Translation Fellowship to translate a manuscript of Woeser’s poetry.

Here are the key verses we talked about, in both English and Tamil:

64
Sweeter than ambrosia by far—the food the tiny hands
Of one’s children have scattered

அமிழ்தினும் ஆற்ற இனிதேதம் மக்கள்
சிறுகை அளாவிய கூழ்

66
Those who don’t hear the babble of their children
Call the flute and the lyre sweet

குழலினி தியாழினி தென்பதம் மக்கள்
மழலைச்சொற் கேளா தவர்

490
Wait like the crane that waits—and strike like the crane
When right

கொக்கொக்க கூம்பும் பருவத்து மற்றதன்
குத்தொக்க சீர்த்த இடத்து

1330
Sulking in love is joy—and joining
Again—joy of joys

ஊடுதல் காமத்திற் கின்பம் அதற்கின்பம்
கூடி முயங்கப் பெறின்

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
Beacon Press, Boston