Sulking
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alantārai yallaṉōy ceytaṟṟāṟ ṟammaip / pulantāraip pullā viṭal.
To leave those who sulked at you without ending the sulk and holding them is to lay a fresh grief on people already worn out by grief.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'Tis heaping griefs on those whose hearts are grieved; / To leave the grieving one without a fond embrace.”
“It is like wounding one anew who is already wounded, it thou come away without embracing her whom thou hast left in a pet.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
தம்மைப் புலந்தாரைப் புல்லாவிடல்= தம்மைப் பெறாது புலந்தமகளிரைப் புலவிநீக்கிக் கலவாது ஆடவர் சேறல்; அலந்தாரை அல்லல் நோய் செய்தற்று= பண்டே துன்பமுற்று அழிந்தாரை அதன்மேலும் மிக்கதுன்பத்தினைச் செய்தாற்போலும், எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the second line first. His sentence is: for men to go away without removing the sulk and uniting with the women who sulked at them because they could not obtain them. Three separate things sit inside that. The one who acts is ஆடவர், men — the commentary names who is doing this and does not generalise it away. The women are described as sulking தம்மைப் பெறாது, not having obtained them, so their pain is established as prior in the gloss itself rather than inferred: the sulk exists because a want went unmet. In his commentary on the next couplet he names this same class of women பரத்தையர், courtesans, which is the situation this chapter assumes throughout. And the fault named is the going away without ending the sulk. Then comes the comparison: it is like inflicting a greater suffering on people who had long since been afflicted and broken down. Two of his words carry the argument — பண்டே, already and long before, and அதன்மேலும், on top of that. One suffering is in place; a second is brought and set upon it. It is a comparison and nothing more. No instruction is issued here.