The Pallor of Longing
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uvakkāṇeṅ kātalar celvā rivakkāṇeṉ / mēṉi pacappūr vatu.
Look, over there: the man we love is going. Look, here: the pallor is already spreading over my body.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“My lover there went forth to roam; / This pallor of my frame usurps his place at home.”
“That day too he went but there, and paleness sought me out here!”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
எம் காதலர் உவக்காண் செல்வார்= பண்டும் காதலர் உங்கே செல்வாராக; என்மேனி பசப்பூர்வது இவக்காண்= என்மேனி பசப்பூர்வது இங்கேயன்றோ, அப்பெற்றியது இன்று பிறிதொன்றாமோ, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the couplet as a woman speaking with her hand: she indicates two places. There, she says, he is going. Here, she says, the pallor is riding over my body. The commentary adds one word of its own, formerly — this is how he used to go — and so the point becomes that today is not a new event but the old one again. Beyond the fact that no interval separates his going from its arriving, she argues nothing and explains nothing.