Longing for the Beloved
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vāḷaṟṟup puṟkeṉṟa kaṇṇu mavarceṉṟa / nāḷoṟṟit tēynta viral.
The brightness has gone out of my eyes and left them dull; and my fingers are worn away with touching, one by one, the marks that count the days since he went.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“My eyes have lost their brightness, sight is dimmed; my fingers worn, / With nothing on the wall the days since I was left forlorn.”
“My eyes have lost their lustre and grown dull, and my fingers have worn away for counting of the days that I have noted on the wall.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
அவர் சென்ற நாள் ஒற்றி விரல் தேய்ந்த= அவர் நம்மைப் பிரிந்துபோய நாள்கள் சுவரின்கண் இழைத்தவற்றைத் தொட்டு எண்ணுதலான் என் விரல்கள் தேய்ந்தன; கண்ணும் வாள் அற்று புற்கென்ற= அதுவேயன்றி, அவர் வரும்வழி பார்த்து என்கண்களும் ஒளியிழந்து புல்லியவாயின, இவ்வாறாயும் அவர் வரவு உண்டாயிற்றில்லை, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the second half of the couplet first. The days he has been away were scratched onto the wall, he says, and her fingers wore down from touching them to count. Then he turns to the eyes: they watched the road he would come by, and lost their brightness, and went dull. He closes with a sentence the couplet itself does not contain, that after all this his coming has still not happened. The couplet reports the damage. The commentator adds that the damage bought nothing.