Declaring the Excellence of Love
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vāḻta luyirkkaṉṉa ḷāyiḻai cāta / lataṟkaṉṉa ṇīṅku miṭattu.
When she is with me, being alive feels like something that is actually happening; when she goes, the same day keeps running without me in it. She is not an addition to my life — she is the difference between living it and merely continuing.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Life is she to my very soul when she draws nigh; / Dissevered from the maid with jewels rare, I die!”
“It is as life when she is near: but it is as very death when she leaveth my side.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
ஆயிழை உயிர்க்கு வாழ்தல் அன்னள்= தெரிந்த இழையினை உடையாள் எனக்குப் புணருமிடத்து, உயிர்க்கு உடம்போடு கூடி வாழ்தல் போலும்; நீங்கும் இடத்து அதற்குச் சாதல் அன்னள்= பிரியுமிடத்து அதற்கு அதனின் நீங்கிப்போதல்போலும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The speaker is the hero, and the woman he loves is called Ayizhai, "she of the chosen ornaments." Parimelazhagar explains that when Ayizhai is joined with him, she is to him what living joined to the body is to life; and when Ayizhai departs from him, she is what the leaving of that body is to life.