Quarrelling with the Heart
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avarneñ cavarkkātaṟ kaṇṭu mevaṉeñcē / nīyemak kākā tatu.
His heart, you have seen, belongs to him alone. Then what is your reason, my heart, for not belonging to me?
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“You see his heart is his alone / O heart, why not be all my own?”
“Thou seest how his heart serveth his will: then, how is it that thou obeyest not me, O my Heart?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
நெஞ்சே= நெஞ்சே; அவர் நெஞ்சு அவர்க்கு ஆதல் கண்டும்= அவருடைய நெஞ்சு நம்மை நினையாது அவர்க்காய்நிற்றல் கண்டு வைத்தும்; நீ எமக்கு ஆகாதது எவன்= நீ எமக்காய் நில்லாது அவரை நினைத்தற்காரணம் யாது, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the line as a plain question a woman puts to her own heart. She has watched how his heart behaves: it does not turn her way at all, it keeps to its owner. The commentator makes that the whole force of the couplet — the evidence is already in front of her, and her heart goes on taking his side rather than hers. What she asks it for is a reason, not an apology.