Sulking
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nalattakai nallavark kēer pulattakai / pūvaṉṉa kaṇṇā rakattu.
Even to men whom good qualities have made worthy, there is a grace, and it is this: the fullness of the sulking that rises in the hearts of their flower-eyed women.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Even to men of good and worthy mind, the petulance / Of wives with flowery eyes lacks not a lovely grace.”
“The bouderie of the beloved hath an attraction even for men who are spotlessly pure.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
நலத்தகை நல்லவர்க்கு ஏஎர்= நற்குணங்களாற் தகுதியுடையராய தலைவர்க்கும் அழகாவது; பூ அன்ன கண்ணார் அகத்துப் புலத்தகை= தம் பூவன்ன கண்ணார் நெஞ்சின்கண் நிகழும் புலவி மிகுதியன்றே, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar splits the couplet in two. For the first half he writes that to men who are worthy through their good qualities — தலைவர்க்கும், with the உம் of concession, even to such men — this is what a beauty is. For the second half he supplies the answer: the abundance of sulking that occurs in the hearts of their flower-eyed women. Three of his words do work the printed line does not. நெஞ்சின்கண், in the heart, settles that this is an inward feeling rather than a display. நிகழும், occurs, makes it an event rather than a disposition. And தம், their own, binds the women to the man. The direction is one-way and he neither reverses nor conceals it: the sulking happens inside her, and the grace is credited to him. His closing அன்றே is not a question but an invitation to agree — is it not so.