KEEPING THE MOUTH SHUT

One of the specialists in one of the hospitals had a picture hanging near the door of his consultation room.  The picture had a fish which was caught in a fish-hook and was struggling.  There was a caption on the picture - 

'Even A Fish Won’t Be Caught, If It Kept Its Mouth Shut'

If the fish has kept its mouth shut when it saw the worm stuck in the hook, it would not have bitten the worm plus the hook and thus got caught.  That is the direct meaning of that.  If people just kept quiet without opening their mouths and making unnecessary comments, they would not get into trouble.  That is the inner meaning of the whole thing.  

There is a similar proverb in Tamil.

'nuNalum than vaayaal kedum'.

This is a really ancient proverb.  Perhaps some of you would have heard this term - 'padhineN kiilz kaNakku'.  It is actually a compilation of 18 books. KiilzkaNakku is a genre - literary work.  ThirukkuRaL is one of the eighteen. There are others like innaa naaRpadhu, iniyavai naaRpadhu, kaar naaRpadhu, kaLaviyal naaRpadhu, thirikadugam, siRu panja muulam, naaladi naanuuRu, thiNaimoliz nuuRRaimbathu, etc. All of them deal with philosophy of life, justice, morality, good sense, reality, way of the world, etc. Some of them are rustic philosophy which bites deep into the mind.  Has anybody written about these things in depth in the Tamil-based Web.  It would be surprising if anybody has done it.  Among the Eighteen Idylls- that is the English word for the 'padhineN kiilz kaNakku' - there is one called 'Palzamolzi naauuRu.

The author of the book has compiled 400 of the proverbs which were in use in his time or before that.  This particular book was written before the 7th century.  Palzamolzi means 'Ancient Words' when translated literally.  Which means that the proverbs were already ancient during the time of the author that is the 7th century AD.  How old were they? That is anybody's guess.

The poet has taken the proverb and made it as the 'iiRRadi' - the last line of a veNba.  A normal veNba poetry has 4 lines. The last line is known as the 'iiRRadi'. The poet has made use of the other three lines to explain, give examples etc., for the proverb.  'nuNalum than vaayaal kedum' is one such proverb out of the 400.  The word 'nuNal' has several meanings the meaning here is a 'frog' or 'toad'.  Normally the toad is very very still. Does not move. Whenever some insect or worm comes nearby, the toad suddenly opens its mouth, lashes out its tongue which hits the insect. Then it rolls back the tongue into the mouth. The insect also goes into the mouth. The toad swallows the insect. Then it gulps it down. It protrudes its eyes as it swallows and then sits still, as if nothing has happened.  All this drama takes place in absolute silence.

Toads and frogs are the natural prey for the snake.  The snake will hunt for toads and frogs.  But since they are usually silent and very still and immobile, the snake will have difficulty in finding it.  Sometimes the toad will croak and make noise.  The snake immediately turns its attention on the toad and comes for it and swallows it.  The toad would not have been caught if it had kept its mouth shut and had been silent.

Another meaning for 'nuNal' is a kind of fish.  The fish might make the mistake by opening its mouth to bite the bait. Thus it is hooked and is caught.  This is a direct parallel for the English proverb.

"Even A Fish Won't Get Caught, If It Kept Its Mouth Shut".