Reserve Overcome
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kāma meṉavoṉṟō kaṇṇiṉṟeṉ neñcattai / yāmattu māḷun toḻil.
This one thing men call desire has no eye for me: at midnight, when every other task lets go, it still sets my heart to work.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“What men call love is the one thing of merciless power; / It gives my soul no rest, e'en in the midnight hour.”
“Heartless is this thing called Love: for it oppresseth my heart even in the dead of night.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
யாமத்தும் என் நெஞ்சத்தைத் தொழில் ஆளும்= எல்லாரும் தொழில் ஒழியும் இடையாமத்தும் என் நெஞ்சத்தை ஒறுத்துத் தொழில்கொள்ளாநின்றது; காமம் என ஒன்றோ கண் இன்று= ஆகலான் காமம் என்று சொல்லப்பட்ட ஒன்று கண்ணோட்டம் இன்றாய் இருந்தது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the second line as the evidence and the first as the verdict drawn from it. Midnight, he says, is the hour at which everybody's work stops. At that hour this thing punishes her heart and puts it to labour anyway. From that one fact the charge follows: the thing called desire has no kaṇṇō ṭṭam — no kindly regard, none of the look that lets somebody off. He does not call it cruel. He says it has no eye, and lets the hour prove it.