Longing for the Beloved
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orunā ḷeḻunāḷpōṟ celluñcēṭ ceṉṟār / varunāḷvait tēṅku pavarkku.
For those who hold on to the day the far-gone one is to return, and ache until it comes, a single day goes by as slowly as seven.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“One day will seem like seven to those who watch and yearn / For that glad day when wanderers from afar return.”
“To those who count the days and yearn for the return of the beloved who is away, one single day will creep along with the slowness of seven.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
சேண் சென்றார் வருநாள் வைத்து ஏங்குபவர்க்கு= சேணிடைச் சென்ற தங்காதலர் மீண்டுவரக்குறித்த நாளையுட்கொண்டு, அது வருந்துணையும் உயிர்தாங்கி வருந்தும் மகளிர்க்கு; ஒருநாள் எழுநாள்போல் செல்லும்= ஒருநாள் பலநாள் போல நெடிதாகக்காட்டும், எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the second line first and builds the person the couplet is about. She is one whose beloved has gone to a distant place; she has taken into herself the day appointed for his return; and she holds her life up until that day arrives, in distress the whole while. He adds three things the couplet leaves implicit. The distance is named as far, so the return cannot be hurried. The day is not merely known but kept inside her. And what she does until then is not simply wait: he says she bears up her life. Only then does he give the first line, and he expands seven into many, saying that one day shows itself long, as though it were many days.