Reserve Overcome
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niṟaiyuṭaiyē ṉeṉpēṉmaṉ yāṉōveṉ kāma / maṟaiyiṟantu maṉṟu paṭum.
Until today I called myself a woman who holds herself in hand. So much for that: my longing has walked past every concealment and is standing in the open square.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“In womanly reserve I deemed myself beyond assail; / But love will come abroad, and casts away the veil.”
“I was proud that I was correct and decorous in my behaviour: but alas! love rendeth every veil and showeth itself in public.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
யான் நிறையுடையேன் என்பேன்மன்= இன்றின் ஊங்கெல்லாம் யான் என்னை நிறையுடையேன் என்று கருதியிருந்தேன்; என் காமம் மறையிறந்து மன்றுபடும்= அதனால் என், இன்று என்காமம் மறைத்தலைக் கடந்து மன்றின்கண் வெளிப்படாநின்றது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar puts a date on the first line. Until today, he says, and not a moment beyond it: all the time before this she considered herself a woman who had reserve. Then he asks what came of that. Today, he says, her desire has crossed the act of concealing and gone into the mandru, the common ground of the settlement. He does not say that people found her out. He says the thing went there itself, and the two are not the same report.