Sad Remembrance
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viḷiyume ṉiṉṉuyir vēṟalla meṉpā / raḷiyiṉmai yāṟṟa niṉaintu.
He used to say, 'We are not two.' Dwelling long on the tenderness now gone from him, my sweet life ebbs away.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Dear life departs, when his ungracious deeds I ponder o'er, / Who said erewhile, 'We're one for evermore'.”
“When my heart thinketh on his cruelty who once said, We are not two but only one life and soul, verily my life ebbeth away.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
வேறு அல்லம் என்பார் அளியின்மை ஆற்ற நினைந்து= முன்பெல்லாம் நாம் இருவரும் வேறல்லம் என்று சொல்லுவாரது அளியின்மையை மிகவும் நினைந்து; என் இன் உயிர் விளியும்= எனது இனியவுயிர் கழியாநின்றது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
He himself used to say, Parimelazhagar notes, 'we two are not separate beings.' Now the man who owned those words shows no trace of that tenderness. What wears her down is not the distance but this gap: the one who once spoke so, now being so. Dwelling on and on upon that want of grace, she says her sweet life itself is draining away. The sickness here is not absence but a changed heart.