Sulking
.
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
pullā tirāap pulattai yavaruṟu / mallaṉōy kāṇkañ ciṟitu.
Do not go to him and take him in your arms — keep the sulk up; let us see a little of the distress that comes over him.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Be still reserved, decline his profferred love; / A little while his sore distress we 'll prove.”
“Embrace him not, my dear, but feign to be angry: let us just see a fun how he is nettled over it.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
அவர் உறு அல்லல் நோய் சிறிது காண்கம்=அங்ஙனம் புலந்தால் காதலர் எய்தும் அல்லல் நோயினை யாம் சிறிது காணக்கடவேம்; புல்லாது இராஅப் புலத்தை= நீ அவரை விரைந்து சென்று புல்லாதே இத்தொழிலை மேலிட்டுக்கொண்டிருப்பாயாக, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the second half of the couplet first: if she sulks in this way, he writes, we shall see a little of the அல்லல் நோய், the affliction of distress, that her lover comes to. Only then does he return to the first half, where he separates two things — a prohibition, do not go to him in haste and embrace him, and an order, take this up as a தொழில் and keep it going. The word விரைந்து, in haste, is worth noticing: he does not forbid the embrace, he forbids rushing to give it. தொழில் matters more. Nobody calls a temper that arrives on its own an occupation; the word is for something a person takes up and carries on, and can therefore also put down. He does not soften the purpose either. What is to be looked at is his distress. And by writing யாம், the first-person plural, he makes the companion one of the watchers rather than a bystander.