Unendurable Separation
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pirivuraikkum vaṉkaṇṇa rāyi ṉaritavar / nalkuva reṉṉum nacai.
If he can stand in front of me and speak the parting aloud, he has the hard eye for it — and the hungry hope that he will one day be tender is a hope I must let go.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“To cherish longing hope that he should ever gracious be, / Is hard, when he could stand, and of departure speak to me.”
“When he hath the hardness to say to my very face, I shall depart, I give up all hope of his ever coming back to save me.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
அவர் பிரிவு உரைக்கும் வன்கண்ணர் ஆயின்= நம் கவவுக்கடுமை அறிந்த தலைவர்தாமே நம்முனின்று தம்பிரிவினை உணர்த்தும் வன்கண்மை உடையராயின்; நல்குவர் என்னும் நசை அரிது= அத்தன்மையார் பின்பு நம் ஆற்றாமை அறிந்து வந்து தலையளிசெய்வார் என்று இருக்கும் ஆசை விடப்படும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads it as an inference from manner. The man knows how fierce her hold on him is; if he nonetheless stands before her and announces the parting himself, with an eye that does not flinch, then the hope she has been keeping — that he will later understand what she is going through, come back and be tender — is a hope she must give up. The hardness with which the parting is spoken is itself the evidence that the softening will not come.