Longing for the Beloved
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kūṭiya kāmam pirintār varavuḷḷik / kōṭuko ṭēṟumeṉ ṉeñcu.
Only from thinking of his coming back, his who went away, and of the love that will come back with him, my heart puts out branches and climbs.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'He comes again, who left my side, and I shall taste love's joy,'- / My heart with rapture swells, when thoughts like these my mind employ.”
“He gave my company up and parted without any regard to my feelings but yet for the mere thinking of his speedy return my heart swelleth with joy!”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
பிரிந்தார் கூடிய காமம் வரவு உள்ளி= நீங்கிய காமத்தராய் நம்மைப் பிரிந்துபோயவர் மேற்கூறிய காமத்துடனே தங்கண் வருதலை நினைந்து; என் நெஞ்சு கோடுகொடு ஏறும்= என்செஞ்சு வருத்தம் ஒழிந்து மேன்மேல் பணைத்து எழாநின்றது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar first settles who is coming and what he is bringing. The man who left had put love aside in order to go; what she thinks about is his returning with that same love restored to him. Then he takes the heart's movement in two steps and names them. Its distress goes first, and only after that does it rise, higher and higher, and he glosses the rising with a word for something thickening as it grows. Nothing has happened yet. What is producing all of this is the thinking, and the commentator keeps that word at the centre of his sentence rather than letting it slip to the edge.