Discipline [from 'proverbs 400' In Tamil] Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

34. O, Native of the town where the coconuts
fall in fertile fields! Though you've got all glories
of ancient family tradition, your conduct
so good gives the taste of milk mixed with the ghee.

35. O, Chief of the hill tracts with roaring streams!
The seers too eat the iguana, a dog brings.
Don't scorn the fragrants from Cactus, the words
Of the crow or the low-born if they are good.

36. O Chief! Don't be a low-born by thinking
not about your conduct or the history
of your relations. Adopt your usual ways.
No one knows better your conduct than yourself.

37. The drum makes the sound we think of.
If one among the wise with a good grasp
doesn't behave oneself even the sages
with ripe age and wisdom can't convince them.

38. One should clear away one's faults before poking
one's nose into the faults of others. A goat
doesn't cure the gout it suffers from but feeds
other things with milk to save them.

39. Even when ruin is certain, don't hurt others
with abusive remarks. The rocks in huge
wheel-like hills engulfed by the seas too erode.
But the words of malice said ne'er wear away.

40. O, Chief of the cool coast! If one's disease
cures not by medicines, the one gets deceased.
one's good conduct, the discipline saves one
when ills infect one's leadership.

41. O, Chief of the waves sweeping the cool coast
where the tree ‘Serunthi' bends low and grows.
The thorns of Nerunchi don't harm the walkers.
Those who aren't scared by malice don't feel grief.