Making the Signs Known
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Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
ceṟitoṭi ceytiṟanta kaḷḷa muṟutuyar / tīrkku maruntoṉ ṟuṭaittu.
The concealment she of the close-set bangles practised on me and went away with holds inside it a medicine that will cure my great grief.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“The secret wiles of her with thronging armlets decked, / Are medicines by which my raising grief is checked.”
“The cunning with which she concealed her rising thought and left hath a charm to cure the anguish of my heart.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
செறிதொடி செய்து இறந்த கள்ளம்= நெருங்கிய வளைகளை உடையாள் என்கண் இல்லாதது ஒன்றனை உட்கொண்டு அது காரணமாக என்னை மறைத்துப்போன குறிப்பு; உறு துயர் தீர்க்கும் மருந்து ஒன்று உடைத்து= என் மிக்கதுயரைத் தீர்க்கும் மருந்தாவது ஒன்றனை உடைத்து, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar unpacks the middle of the line first. She took into herself some notion about me that has no basis, and on that account she kept something from me and went. That withholding, he says, has in it a medicine for my great grief. Two things follow from his wording. The trouble is described as a misreading of him, not as a fault in her, and no accusation is made anywhere in the gloss. And the medicine is not something she handed over: the concealment holds it. The speaker has no idea what she is keeping back and is not guessing at the content. He is reading the act itself, and reading it in his own favour.