Pining and Complaint
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kāmamu nāṇu muyirkāvāt tūṅkumeṉ / ṉōṉā vuṭampi ṉakattu.
Desire hangs at one end and restraint at the other, and my life is the pole between them — inside a body that has no strength to carry either.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“My soul, like porter's pole, within my wearied frame, / Sustains a two-fold burthen poised, of love and shame.”
“At the two ends of the pole which is my life, my two loads of passion and delicacy hang heavy; and this suffering body breaketh under their weight.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
காமமும் நாணும்= காமநோயும் அதனைச் செய்தவர்க்கு உரைக்கல் ஒல்லாத நாணும்; நோனா என் உடம்பின் அகத்து= தம்மைப் பொறாத என் உடம்பின்கண்ணே; உயிர் காவாத் தூங்கும்= உயிர் காத் தண்டாக அதன் இருதலையினும் தூங்காநின்றன.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The woman presents her condition as a carrying-pole. At one end is the sickness of love; at the other is the நாண் that will not let her tell the man who caused it. The pole that bears them both is her life. Parimelazhagar's reading places both loads swinging at either end, inside a body that has no strength to bear them. There is not one burden here but two, and what carries them is the thing in the middle.