Unendurable Separation
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ōmpi ṉamaintār pirivōmpaṉ maṟṟavar / nīṅki ṉaritāṟ puṇarvu.
If you would keep my life safe, then hold back the going of the man who holds it. If nobody holds him and he leaves, there will be no meeting again.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“If you would guard my life, from going him restrain / Who fills my life! If he depart, hardly we meet again.”
“If thou wouldst save my life, O my maid, prevent the master of that life, from going: for if he part from me, I despair of our meeting again.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
ஓம்பின் அமைந்தார் பிரிவு ஓம்பல்= என்னுயிரைச் செல்லாமற் காத்தியாயின், அதனை ஆளுதற்கு அமைந்தாருடைய செலவினை அழுங்குவிப்பாயாக; மற்று அவர்நீங்கின் புணர்வு அரிது= அழுங்குவிப்பார் இன்றி, அவர்செல்வாராயின் அவரால் ஆளப்பட்ட உயிரும் செல்லும், சென்றால் பின் அவரைக்கூடுதல் எனக்கு அரிதாம்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads this as the woman asking her companion for help. If you would keep my life from going, she says, then hold back the journey of the man who is fit to rule that life. If there is nobody to hold him and he goes, the life he ruled will go with him, and once it has gone, meeting him again will be beyond her. Guarding the life and preventing the departure are, in this reading, one and the same act.