Setting Reserve Aside
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kāmak kaṭumpuṉa luykkumē nāṇoṭu / nallāṇmai yeṉṉum puṇai.
A strong feeling can carry off the very self-control you were relying on to get through it. Shame and composure are a raft, not a bridge — and a flood in flood-season takes rafts.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Love's rushing tide will sweep away the raft / Of seemly manliness and shame combined.”
“I put my trust on the raft that was built of firmness and delicacy: but the rushing stream of passion hath carried it along in its course.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
நாணொடு நல்லாண்மை என்னும் புணை= யான் தன்னைக் கடத்தற்குக் கொண்ட நாணும் நல்லாண்மையும் ஆகிய புணைகளை; காமக் கடும்புனல் உய்க்குமே= என்னிற் பிரித்துக் காமமாகிய கடியபுனல் கொண்டுபோகாநின்றது.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The man in love speaks of himself: the shame and the good manliness that I took up as a raft to carry me across the river of love — the fierce flood of love itself is separating those rafts from me and carrying them away. So Parimelazhagar explains.