The Wasting Away
.
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taṇantamai cāla vaṟivippa pōlu / maṇantanāḷ vīṅkiya tōḷ.
Your shoulders, which filled out with happiness on the day he married you, are wasting now as though to make his parting fully known.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“These withered arms, desertion's pangs abundantly display, / That swelled with joy on that glad nuptial day.”
“The arms that swelled with joy on the nuptial day now look as if they would proclaim his parting to all the world.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
மணந்த நாள் வீங்கிய தோள்= காதலர் மணந்த ஞான்று இன்பம் மிகுதியாற் பூரித்த நின்தோள்கள்; தணந்தமை சால அறிவிப்ப போலும்= இன்று அவர் பிரிந்தமையை விளங்க உணர்த்துவபோல மெலியாநின்றன, இது தகாது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar begins with the day he married her, when her shoulders were full with the abundance of that happiness. Today, he says, they are wasting, as though to make his parting plainly known. He adds a judgement of his own: this is not fitting. The reproach is not addressed to her. It is addressed to her shoulders.