Making the Signs Known
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Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
peritāṟṟip peṭpak kalatta laritāṟṟi / yaṉpiṉmai cūḻva tuṭaittu.
He eases the whole of the grief his going caused, and comes to me made exactly to my liking. That joining has in it a man bearing his own grief with difficulty, and a lovelessness being turned over in his mind.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“While lovingly embracing me, his heart is only grieved: / It makes me think that I again shall live of love bereaved.”
“He is overkind and sweet to me: I fear there is something in his heart which he is hardly able to conceal: and it forebodeth to me a second departure.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
பெரிது ஆற்றிப் பெட்பக் கலத்தல்= காதலர் வந்து தம்பிரிவினான் ஆய துன்பத்தினை மிகவும் ஆற்றி நாம் மகிழும் வண்ணம் கலக்கின்ற கலவி; அரிது ஆற்றி அன்பின்மை சூழ்வது உடைத்து= இருந்தவாற்றான் மேலும் அத்துன்பத்தினை அரிதாக ஆற்றியிருந்து அவர் அன்பின்மையை நினையும் தன்மை உடைத்து எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the first half as one single thing: the joining. The lover has come, has taken away a great deal of the suffering his going caused, and has come together with her in a way that pleases her. Then he turns to what that joining has in it. From the way he has been, he says, it holds his own enduring of that same suffering, managed only with difficulty, and his turning over of a lovelessness still to come. The split makes two things clear. The suffering is not hers alone; one word does duty for both of them, and his share of it is the harder to carry. And the gloss stops at the turning over. It does not say he has decided to go, and it does not say she is right about him. It says the joining has this in it, which is a report on what she is able to read, not a verdict on the man.