Sulking

Parimelazhagar splits the couplet where its comparison begins. On ஊடியவரை உணராமை he writes: நும்மோடு ஊடிய பரத்தையரை ஊடல் உணர்த்திக் கூடாது ஒழிதல் — leaving off, without soothing away the sulk and coming together again, the பரத்தையர் who have sulked with you. Two things in that gloss should be said plainly rather than smoothed over. He is addressing men: நும், 'you', in the plural. And he names the sulking party as a class — பரத்தையர், the courtesans a man keeps company with. That is the situation the commentary has in view, and the chapter stands in Kamathupaal, among verses about quarrels between lovers. He does not read உணராமை as not knowing. His word is உணர்த்தி, the causative — to bring another person out of it — and what he says is left undone is exactly that, described as an ஒழிதல், a putting-aside. Failing to notice is one thing; declining to act is another, and he means the second. He then opens out the comparison: பண்டே நீர்பெறாது வாடிய கொடியை அடியிலே அறுத்தாற்போலும் — like cutting, at its foot, a creeper that had already withered for want of water. The two words he adds carry the verse. நீர்பெறாது gives the cause of the withering: the plant needed no remedy except the one thing nobody brought it. பண்டே gives the order of events: it was already failing before the knife arrived. And the cut he names is at the அடி, the base, not at a leaf or a branch. He does not say a further affliction is inflicted. He says the one place recovery could have come from is taken away.