Tirukkural, the Veda of the World and the crown of Tamil literature, was made available to the Western world by G U Pope, an Englishman, who first translated it into English in full. This rendering of the Tirukkural shows G U Pope’s deep involvement in Tamil literature and his ability in writing in English. In the place of classical Tamil meter and rhyme, the translator has substituted a suitable TL (Target Language) meter and rhyme. The use of inversions and end rhymes helps to preserve the dignity of the original and the dignity expected of moral epigrams. This paper also shows that G U Pope resorted to metrical translation in keeping with the Victorian trend of adopting the style of the poetry of the previous age to suggest the greatness of high Tamil poetry.

Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar, the monumental work in Tamil literature, is the most widely revered Tamil classic of all times. It is supposed to have been written in the early century in the beginning of the Christian era. It is the only Tamil literary work that has been translated many times in almost all languages of the world. No other language or culture has got the credit of possessing such a literature, and Ku. Mohanarasu (2010) claims, in his latest survey, that in English alone “there are about one hundred translations of Tirukkural” (p. 331). The prominent ones among these are: G U Pope’s The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar in metrical verses (1886), V V S Aiyar’s Thirukkural translation in prose (1915), W H Drew and J Lazarus’ translation in prose (1956), G Vanmikanathan’s translation (1969) in unrhymed verses, K R Srinivasa Iyengar’s translation in unrhymed couplets (1988) and J Narayanaswamy’s translation in verse (1999).

G U Pope was not only the first to translate the complete Tirukkural into English but also the first to render it in English verse. This rendering of the classic in metrical translation with useful introduction, lexicon and concordance came out in the year 1886. We find in G U Pope all the qualities necessary for a translator of the classics as later prescribed by Theodore Savory: “…for translation at its highest level, in addition to familiarity with the language of the original, in addition to ability in writing English, and in addition to knowledge of the subject matter, there is to be sought a psychical affinity between author and translator” (p. 72). G U Pope’s success as a translator comes as a result of years of careful study and his deep and accurate knowledge of the classical Tamil language. All the translations of G U Pope stand as a proof to his long acquaintance with Tamil and his deep involvement in classical Tamil literature.

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