Setting Reserve Aside
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
yām kaṇṇiṟ kāṇa aṟivillār nakupa / yāmpaṭṭa tāmpaṭā vāṟu.
The people mocking her have never felt what she is feeling. Their laughter is not a verdict on her; it is a report on how little they have lived.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Before my eyes the foolish make a mock of me, / Because they ne'er endured the pangs I now must drie.”
“Fools laugh at me to my very face: for they have not felt all the pangs that I feel.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
யாம் கண்ணிற்காண அறிவில்லார் நகுப= யாம் கேட்குமாறும் அன்றிக் கண்ணாற்காணுமாறு எம்மை அறிவிலார் நகாநின்றார்; :யாம்பட்ட தாம் படாவாறு= அவர் அங்ஙனம் செய்கின்றது யாம் உற்றநோய்கள் தாம் உறாமையான்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The woman speaks: people without understanding laugh at me — not merely where I might later hear of it, but openly, where I see it with my own eyes. They laugh, Parimelazhagar explains, because they themselves have never undergone the suffering of love that I have undergone.