Three Lessons from the Kural from beyond the Kural

Thank you again for signing up in advance for Taller Than a Mountain. I’m delighted you’ll be joining us.
You will find the recording of the bonus introductory class below, as well as a link for downloading an audio recording.
The video and the download will be available until January 31, 2024.
A Small Request
I’m delighted for anyone and everyone who wants to learn about these poems and the Kural to be able to do so.
Please feel free to invite anyone you think would benefit from them to sign up for the course at whatever price fits their situation.
Anyone who registers by May 11, 2023 will also get access to the recording of this class.
Here is the link to share about the course: https://thomaspruiksma.com/mountain/
Thank you for anything you do to spread the word.
Class Recording
Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:
- A very brief introduction to the Tamil language and to the Sangam Period 2:50
- The first poem, “Who is your mother to mine?” 8:44
- The second poem, “Even if he makes much and eats with many” 19:16
- The third poem, “Don’t think to conquer the one who holds back” 31:31
- Question: Can you say more about poetry and the sounds of the words? 41:39
- Another poem from Avvaiyar, “Good done to a man of character—” 47:43
- Question: How do you relate formal poetry and free verse in translating a poet like Tiruvalluvar? 50:21
- Question: How do you translate culturally specific words and phrases? 56:57
- Question: How could Tiruvalluvar have experienced all the aspects of life that he has written about? 1:02:33
- An invitation to tell your friends about the course and to invite them to sign up 1:08:40
Download the Audio
Clicking the button at the bottom of the page will open the audio file in a new tab.
From the new tab, you will be able to download the audio in one of two ways, depending on your browser:
- If there are three dots beside the audio player in the new tab, click on them to get the option to download.
- If there aren’t three dots beside the audio player, either right click (Windows) or control click (Mac) on the audio player itself and select “Save Audio As.” You will then be able to save the audio to your device.