Illiteracy (By St. Thiruvalluvar) Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

401.One’s grit to speak in an assembly without full knowledge
Of great works, is rolling the dice without wooden board.
402.An ignorant’s desire to speak in a meeting of the learned
is like the transgender covets to enjoy womanliness.
403.The illiterates are also very good if they have the knack
of not speaking in the council of the learned.
404.Though the wisdom, the ignorant has, sparkles at times
The wise don’t accept him as knowledgeable.
405.The respect of an illiterate goes to the worst
When learned men argue with him.
406.The illiterates exist in this earth to strand
as useless as the barren saline land.
407.The vain beauty of one without intelligence, excellence
and a probing sense likens the well-decked doll of clay.
408.The wealth amassed to the illiterate harms more
than the poverty seizing the wise.
409.The illiterates though high born are not dignified
than the literates who are low born.
410.Comparing to the erudite, the illiterates
are not humans but the beasts.