Speaking with the Heart
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
uḷḷattār kāta lavarāka vuḷḷinī / yāruḻaic cēṟiyeṉ ṉeñcu.
The one you love is inside you, my heart — so whose side is it that you keep setting out for?
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“My heart! my lover lives within my mind; / Roaming, whom dost thou think to find?”
“Whom dost thou seek to join, O my Heart, when thou knowest that the beloved is seated within thy own self?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
என் நெஞ்சு= என்னெஞ்சே; காதலவர் உள்ளத்தாராக= காதலர் நின் அகத்தாராக; நீ உள்ளி யாருழைச் சேறி= முன்பு எல்லாம் கண்டுவைத்து இப்பொழுது நீ புறத்துத் தேடிச் செல்கின்றது யாரிடத்து, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar keeps the whole weight of the line on one question. My heart, he says: the beloved is within you. All this while you have been seeing him there; so when you set out now, thinking of him, whose side is it that you are going to? He does not answer the question, and he does not offer a second place where the search might succeed. The line is left standing as a question because there is no address to give it.