Wealth Without Benefit
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ētam peruñcelvan tāṉṟuvvāṉ ṟakkārkkoṉ / ṟīta liyalpilā tāṉ.
A man who takes nothing from his wealth himself and has no disposition to give even one thing to those fitted to ask: he is a disease afflicting great wealth.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Their ample wealth is misery to men of churlish heart, / Who nought themselves enjoy, and nought to worthy men impart.”
“There is a man that enjoyeth not his wealth nor giveth freely to men of worth: he is a disease unto a great fortune.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
தான் துவ்வான் தக்கார்க்கு ஒன்று ஈதல் இயல்பிலாதான்= தான் நுகரானாய் அதன்மேலும் தகுதியுடையார்க்கு அவர் வேண்டியது ஒன்றனை ஈதல் இயற்கை இலன் ஆயினான்; பெருஞ் செல்வம் ஏதம்= இண்டும் செய்தற்கு இடனுடைத்தாய செல்வத்திற்கு ஒரு நோய்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
One who does not partake himself, and beyond that has no natural disposition to give fitting people the one thing they want — he is, Parimelazhagar says, a disease to great wealth: wealth that, in his phrase, has room in it to do both. That phrase carries the charge. The fault is not scarcity but an obstruction standing inside something that was capable of working.