Poverty
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
tuppura villār tuvarat tuṟavāmai / yuppiṟkuṅ kāṭikkuṅ kūṟṟu.
When people with nothing left to consume do not take up renunciation outright — the course Parimelazhagar assumes to be theirs — that not-renouncing is death to salt and to sour rice-water.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Unless the destitute will utterly themselves deny, / They cause their neighbour's salt and vinegar to die.”
Editors' note: the neighbour is Parimelazhagar's supplement, பிறர் இல்லன் உளவாய, not the couplet's; and the Tamil predicates கூற்று of an omission rather than making people the agents of it.
“The one way open to the indigent is to renounce utterly, their lives: their not doing so is but death to salt and rice-water.”
Editors' note: 'their lives' is Aiyar's. The couplet has no word for life, and neither does Parimelazhagar, whose துறத்தல் is the renunciation of consumable goods — நுகரப்படும் பொருள்கள். Nothing in these two lines says what is to be renounced.
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
துப்புரவு இல்லார் துவரத் துறவாமை= நுகரப்படும் பொருள்கள் இல்லாதார் தம்மாற் செயற்பாலது முற்றத் துறத்தலேயாகவும் அது செய்யாது ஒழிதல்; உப்பிற்கும் காடிக்கும் கூற்று= பிறர் இல்லன் உளவாய உப்பிற்கும் காடிக்கும் கூற்றாம்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
What those with nothing left to consume should do, he says, is renounce outright; and not doing it is death to the salt and the sour rice-water in other people's houses. ('Should do' and 'other people's' are both Parimelazhagar's; neither is in the two lines.)