Eyes Worn Out with Grief
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
maṟaipeṟa lūrārk karitaṉṟā lempō / laṟaipaṟai kaṇṇā rakattu.
When people have eyes like mine, eyes that go about beating a drum, whatever they are holding down inside is no hard thing for the town to come by.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“It is not hard for all the town the knowledge to obtain, / When eyes, as mine, like beaten tambours, make the mystery plain.”
“When people’s eyes themselves are telltale drums, even as my own, it is not hard for strangers to read the secret they seek to conceal.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
எம்போல் அறைபறை கண்ணார் அகத்து மறை பெறல்= எம்மைப்போலும் அறைபறையாகிய கண்ணினை உடையார் தம் நெஞ்சின்கண் அடக்கிய மறையை அறிதல்; ஊரார்க்கு அரிதன்று= இவ்வூரின்கண் உள்ளார்க்கு எளிது.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar's point is that for the people of this town it is easy to know what is being shut away inside by anyone whose eyes are like a drum that is beaten. What the couplet puts as 'not hard' he restates directly as easy. And she includes herself in that company: people like us, she says.