The Wasting Away
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toṭiyoṭu tōṇekiḻa nōva lavaraik / koṭiya reṉakkūṟa ṉontu.
That my shoulders slacken and the bangles go with them, I bear. What I grieve at, and grieve at inwardly, is hearing you call him cruel for it.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“I grieve, 'tis pain to me to hear him cruel chid, / Because the armlet from my wasted arm has slid.”
“I chide my arms for growing lean and allowing the bracelets to fall off, as people now reproach him with cruelty.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
தொடியொடு தோள் நெகிழ=யான் ஆற்றவும், என் வயத்தவன்றித் தொடிகள் கழலுமாறு தோள்கள் மெலிய; அவரைக்கொடியர் எனக் கூறல் நொந்து நோவல்= அவற்றைக்கண்டு நீ அவரைக் கொடியர் எனக் கூறுதலைப் பொறாது யான் என்னுள்ளே நோவாநின்றேன், எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar gives the answer to the woman herself. Bear it as she does, she says, the shoulders are thinning without any will of hers and the bangles are going with them. What she cannot endure is that her friend looks at that and calls him pitiless; that, she says, is what she is grieving at, inwardly. The commentator is exact about where the grief falls: not on the slipping bangle, but on the sentence spoken over it.