Sulking
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ūṭa luṇaṅka viṭuvārō ṭeṉṉeñcaṅ / kūṭuvē meṉpa tavā.
He can leave me to dry out in the sulk, and still my heart says: let us go and be joined with him. What makes it say so is craving — that, and nothing else.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Of her who leaves me thus in variance languishing, / To think within my heart with love is fond desire.”
“If my heart still yearneth for her who sootheth me not, it is due to nothing but a foolish longing.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
ஊடல் உணங்க= தாம் ஊடற்கண்ணே மெலியாநிற்கவும்; விடுவாரோடு கூடுவேம் என்பது என் நெஞ்சம் அவா= விட்டிருக்க வல்லாரோடு கூடக்கடவேம் என்று என் நெஞ்சம் முயறற்கு ஏது, தன் அவாவே, பிறிதில்லை, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar touches this line in three places. He begins with ஊடல் உணங்க and glosses it 'while she herself grows weak within the sulk', which settles a question the Tamil leaves open: what is drying out is not the quarrel but the woman inside it. He then takes விடுவாரோடு and writes 'with one who is able to stay away'. The added word is வல்லார், able, and it changes the man from someone who has failed to come into someone who is capable of not coming. Third, he answers the question the line raises: what makes the heart strive after such a person? 'The cause of my heart's striving is its own அவா, and nothing else.' Two words carry that. முயற்சி, striving: the heart is not merely wishing, it is working at it. And பிறிதில்லை, nothing else — he leaves no room for a second explanation. Then the gloss stops. Not one word of consolation is added to it.