The 2,000-Year-Old Vigil Of The Sickle-Nosed
My translation of a 2,000-year-old Tamil poem and a message of hope
The Black Ibis or the Red-naped Ibis is a remarkable bird and is endemic to India.
Living in small groups, nesting atop trees like the Palmyra and Peepul, the Red-naped Ibis has a dark brown and black plumage with a bright red patch on its nape.
The Tamil (தமிழ் — an ancient race and language in the south of India) name for Ibis is Arivaal Mookkan (அரிவாள் மூக்கன்) or the Sickle-nosed, describing its most significant feature — the long, curved beak. Apart from the Red-naped Ibis, India is also home to the Black-Headed Ibis and the Glossy Ibis.
The Red-naped Ibis — called Andril (அன்றில்)— has featured regularly in Tamil literature all along the last twenty centuries, haunting its poets, embellishing its epics and poems. The bird has served as a muse in other literary traditions of India too.
The Andril has long been the darling of romantic poets, as they leaned on the bird to bring a sense of authenticity and a streak of passion to their verses eulogizing fidelity and intimacy. This is owing to an age-old belief that the Andril mates for life. That it pines for its pair when it loses one, and that it dies soon after, has captured the imagination of the…
