The Subtleties of Sulking
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ūṭi yiruntēmāt tummiṉār yāntammai / nīṭuvāḻ keṉpāk kaṟintu.
We were sulking, and we would not speak. Then he sneezed — knowing that we would have to say to him, 'Long may you live.'
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“One day we silent sulked; he sneezed: The reason well I knew; / He thought that I, to speak well pleased, Would say, 'Long life to you!'”
“I was in the sulks: he then sneezed, for he thought that I would bless him saying, Long live my beloved!”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
ஊடி இருந்தேமாத் தும்மினார்= யாம் தம்மோடு ஊடி உரையாடாது இருந்தேமாகக் காதலர் தும்மினார்; யாம் தம்மை நீடு வாழ்க என்பாக்கு அறிந்து= அது நீங்கித் தம்மை நீடுவாழ்க என்று உரையாடுவேமாகக் கருதி, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar breaks the couplet into two pieces. On the first, ஊடி இருந்தேமாத் தும்மினார், he writes: yām, having sulked with him and remained without speaking, the lover sneezed. Two things are added there. First, the sulk is not merely a coldness but a state in which speech has stopped. Second, the sneezer is one man; the plural in தும்மினார் is the honorific, not a count. On the second piece, யாம் தம்மை நீடு வாழ்க என்பாக்கு அறிந்து, he expands: reckoning that, that having gone, we would speak to him and say 'may you live long'. The clause he inserts, அது நீங்கி — 'that having gone' — matters. The blessing alone was not the prize he had in view; the sulk lifting and the conversation returning was. And by restating அறிந்து as கருதி, having reckoned, the commentator makes it plain that this was not something the man happened to notice but a calculation he made before he sneezed.