The Wasting Away
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
kaṇṇiṉ pacappō paruvara leytiṉṟē / yoṇṇutal ceytatu kaṇṭu.
Was it only the eyes that lost their colour? That pallor came to grief itself, at the sight of what the bright forehead beside it had gone and done.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“The dimness of her eye felt sorrow now, / Beholding what was done by that bright brow.”
“Did the eyes grow pale only? They wept also at seeing the pallor of the fair forehead above.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
கண்ணின் பசப்போ பருவரல் எய்தின்று= தண்வளி போழவந்த கண்ணின் பசப்புத் துன்பம் உற்றது; ஒ்ணணுதல் செய்தது கண்டு= தனக்கு அயலாய ஒண்ணுநல் விளைத்த பசப்பைக்கண்டு, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar explains that the very pallor which came into the eye when the cool air cut through has itself come to distress. At the sight of what? At the sight of the pallor produced on the bright forehead beside it. The suffering no longer stops with her: the mark of the suffering has begun to suffer at the sight of another mark of the same thing.