Reserve Overcome
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
niṇantīyi liṭṭaṉṉa neñciṉārk kuṇṭō / puṇarntūṭi niṟpē meṉal.
For women whose heart is fat dropped into fire, is there any such thing as saying: we will meet him, and then hold out against him?
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'We 'll stand aloof and then embrace': is this for them to say, / Whose hearts are as the fat that in the blaze dissolves away?”
“Can they ever think of refusing to be reconciled, whose heart melteth even as fat in the fire?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
நிணம் தீயில் இ்ட்டன்ன நெஞ்சினார்க்கு= நிணத்தைத் தீயின்கண்ணே இட்டால், அஃது உருகுமாறுபோலத் தம் காதலரைக் கண்டால் நிறையழிந்து உருகும் நெஞ்சினையுடைய மகளிர்க்கு; புணர்ந்து ஊடி நிற்பேம் எனல் உண்டோ= அவர் புணர யாம் ஊடிப் பின்பு உணராது அந்நிலையே நிற்கக்கடவேம் என்று கருதுதல் உண்டாகுமோ, ஆகாது எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar builds the comparison before he answers anything. Fat put into fire melts; in that same way the hearts of women whose reserve breaks and runs the moment they see the one they love. Then he asks the question in their name and answers it himself: can such women hold the intention that he will embrace them and that they will stay in the sulk and not relent? They cannot. The comparison has settled the answer before the answer is given. He does not call the intention wrong; he says only that the material it would need is not there.