The Excellence of an Army
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olittakkā leṉṉā muvari yelippakai / nāka muyirppak keṭum.
Even if the enemy host figured as mice roars like the sea, what harm can it do? At the cobra's mere breath it perishes—an intentionally unequal image of ancient martial boasting.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Though, like the sea, the angry mice send forth their battle cry; / What then? The dragon breathes upon them, and they die!”
“What though they roar even like the ocean? an army of rats will be annihilated at a single whiff of the cobra’s breath.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
எலிப்பகை உவரி ஒலித்தக்கால் என்னாம்= எலியாகிய பகை கடல்போல ஒலித்தால் நாகத்திற்கு என்ன ஏதம் வரும்; நாகம் உயிர்ப்பக் கெடும்= அந்நாகம் உயிர்த்த துணையானே அது தானே கெடும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar asks what harm an enemy figured as mice could do to the cobra even if it roared like the sea; at the cobra's mere breath the mouse-host would perish. This is harsh, deliberately unequal ancient martial boasting, not a licence to classify real people as vermin.