Rejoicing in the Embrace
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tāmvīḻvār meṉṟōṭ ṭuyili ṉiṉituko / ṟāmaraik kaṇṇā ṉulaku.
Falling asleep beside the person you love is a happiness that asks nothing of you; it simply arrives. Any promised paradise has to be earned, the poet points out, while this one is already here.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Than rest in her soft arms to whom the soul is giv'n, / Is any sweeter joy in his, the Lotus-eyed-one's heaven?”
“Is the world of the lotus-eyed God sweeter than the tender arms of her that one loveth?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
தாம் வீழ்வார் மென்றோள் துயிலின் இனிதுகொல்= ஐம்புலன்களையும் நுகர்வார்க்குத் தாம் விரும்பும் மகளிர் மெல்லிய தோளின்கண் துயிலும் துயில்போல வருந்தாமல் எய்தல் ஆமோ; தாமரைக்கண்ணான் உலகு= அவற்றைத் துறந்த தவயோகிகள் எய்தும் செங்கண்மால் உலகம்?
Source: Tamil Wikisource
For those who live by enjoying the five senses, the sleep that comes on the soft shoulder of the woman they love is had without any toil at all. Is the heaven of the red-eyed Vishnu, which the ascetics who renounced those pleasures attain, reached as effortlessly as that sleep? This is the question the couplet asks, Parimelazhagar explains.