Longing for the Beloved
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peṟiṉeṉṉām peṟṟakkā leṉṉā muṟiṉeṉṉā / muḷḷa muṭaintukkak kāl.
What is the good of winning her back, what is the good of having won her, what is the good even of holding her, if by then her heart has broken and run out of her?
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“What's my return, the meeting hour, the wished-for greeting worth, / If she heart-broken lie, with all her life poured forth?”
“Of what avail will be my getting back or the meeting or even the hearty embrace, if the heart of my loved one be broken before then?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
உள்ளம் உடைந்து உக்கக்கால்= காதலி நம் பிரிவினை ஆற்றாது, உள்ளம் உடைந்து இறந்துபட்டவழி; பெறின் என்னாம்= நம்மைப் பெறக்கடவள் ஆனால் என்; பெற்றக்கால் என்னாம்= அதுவன்றியே பெற்றால் என்; உறின் என்= அதுவன்றியே மெய்யுறக் கலந்தால்தான் என், இவை ஒன்றானும் பயனில்லை எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the last line first, and he does not soften it. If she cannot bear our separation, he writes, and her heart breaks and she is dead and gone, then he goes back through the three questions in order and answers none of them. What is it, if she should be mine? What is it, if I have her? What is it even if there is a true union of bodies? He closes with a single sentence that covers all three at once: by none of these is there any use whatever. The speaker here is the man who went away, and the whole force of the reading lies in the tense. He is asking, before he goes back, what his return will be worth if it arrives after the damage rather than before it.