Pining and Complaint
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kāmak kaṭumpuṉa ṉīntik karaikāṇēṉ / yāmattum yāṉē yuḷēṉ.
I have swum the fierce water of love and I cannot see the shore. And at the midnight watch, when everything else sleeps, I am the one still here.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“I swim the cruel tide of love, and can no shore descry, / In watches of the night, too, 'mid the waters, only I!”
“I swim in the stormy sea of love, but I spy not any shore thereto: even in the dead of night I am all alone and there is none to console me.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
காமக் கடும்புனல் நீந்திக் கரை காணேன்= காமம் ஆகிய கடலை நீந்தாதேன் அல்லேன், நீந்தியும் அதற்குக் கரை காண்கின்றிலேன்; யாமத்தும் யானே உளேன்= அக்காணாமைக் காலம்தான் எல்லாரும் துயிலும் அரையிருள் ஆயிற்று; அவ் அரையிருட்கண்ணும் அதற்கொரு துணையின்றி யானே ஆயினேன்; ஆயும் இறந்துபட்டு உய்ந்துபோகாது உளேனாகாநின்றேன், ஈதொரு தீவினைப்பயன் இருந்தவாறு என்!
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The couplet stacks four conditions one on another. I am not one who has failed to swim this sea of love, Parimelazhagar begins; I have swum it and still cannot see its shore. The time of that not-seeing has turned out to be the middle of the night, when everyone else sleeps. In that darkness I am alone, with nobody at all beside me. And on top of all that, he ends, I have not died and got free of it: I continue to be. He closes by wondering aloud what kind of fruit of past deeds this is.