The Visions of the Night
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naṉaviṉā ṉalkā tavaraik kaṉaviṉāṟ / kāṇṭali ṉuṇṭeṉ ṉuyir.
He grants me nothing in my waking hours; my life holds on by the sight of him in dream.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Him, who in waking hour no kindness shows, / In dreams I see; and so my lifetime goes!”
“If I am able to support life yet it is only because I see him in dreams who showeth not his face in waking hours.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
நனவினான் நல்காதவரை= நனவின்கண் வந்து தலையளி செய்யாதாரை; கனவினாற் காண்டலின் என் உயிர் உண்டு= யான் கனவின்கட் கண்ட காட்சியானே என் உயிருண்டாகாநின்றது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
In waking hours, Parimelazhagar explains, he does not come and show her tenderness. That very man she sees in dream — and it is by that sight that her life holds on. Waking gives her nothing; the dream gives only a sight — no news, no gift, just the seeing. Yet that sight alone is the food her life survives on.