The Distress of Her Beauty
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oṇṇutaṟ kōo uṭaintatē ñāṭpiṉu / ṇaṇṇāru muṭkumeṉ pīṭu.
A fighter whose reputation alone frightened enemies who had never faced him admits that all of it collapsed at the sight of one woman's bright forehead. Strength measured on the battlefield counts for nothing on this other scale.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Ah! woe is me! my might, That awed my foemen in the fight, / By lustre of that beaming brow Borne down, lies broken now!”
“Is it by her fair forehead that my manhood is overcome, the manhood that causeth to tremble even those that have not faced me on the battlefield?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
ஞாட்பினுள் நண்ணாரும் உட்கும் என் பீடு= போர்க்களத்து வந்து நேராத பகைவரும் நேர்ந்தார்வாய்க் கேட்டு அஞ்சுதற்கு ஏதுவாய என் வலி; ஒண்ணுதற்கு உடைந்ததே= இம் மாதரது ஒள்ளிய நுதல் ஒன்றற்குமே அழிந்துவிட்டது.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar explains: my strength was such that even enemies who never met me face to face in battle grew afraid on merely hearing of it from those who had faced me. That same strength has been destroyed by nothing more than this woman's bright forehead.