நான் பாடும் மௌன ராகம் கேட்கவில்லையா…
About the song “Naan Paadum Mounaraagam”
In 1985, a silent symphony began. From Mani Ratnam’s Idhaya Kovil, produced by Kovai Thambi, Venkateswaran, and Harikrishna, came “Naan Paadum Mounaraagam,” Ilaiyaraaja’s haunting melody that speaks of love too deep for words. Vairamuthu’s moving lyrics captured the unspoken feelings, carried by the ethereal voice of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. The song vibrated with the weight of every unexpressed emotion and every hidden desire. With melancholic strings intertwining through gentle rhythms, Ilaiyaraaja created an atmosphere of pure, bittersweet longing. This was the sound of the heart’s deepest and quietest music. “Naan Paadum Mounaraagam” remains an everlasting whisper, a masterpiece where silence found its voice, still touching hearts decades later.
This silent song, only mine to sing—
Does its frail echo reach you… or flee?
Beloved Ruler of my every word—
Do wakeful eyes deny sleep’s gentle plea?
Within this salt-sea, searching shores of you,
My own self’s shadow sings the aching tune.
The wind stood still, beholding you—and fled,
The moon drew near, then bowed, and vanished.
Why, O Goddess, does your grace conspire,
To murder me—with thorns, not holy fire?
I sought through wasted gales—my soul departed,
This hollow nest sings, empty-hearted—
Its thorn-stitched arms reach for the dawn:
“Where is the song that made its twigs a throne?”
O eyes’ green grove—where first I paid in soul,
To buy love’s bloom… and found it poisoned gold.
Too late I knew, when thorns began to climb:
This paradise was hell’s own sublime.
The curse has fled—but where are you, my Sun?
No melody crowns this silence I must wear.
What stem endures when petals part?
A throne of thorns—where beats a broken heart.
Time tallies debts of breath I borrowed—
His query rots… a joke by sorrow hollowed.
Lost in salt-sea tides that drown the shore—
A ghost now haunts my throat, sings no more.
Caseta Caelum 