The Subtleties of Sulking
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Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
immaip piṟappiṟ piriyala meṉṟēṉāk / kaṇṇiṟai nīrkoṇ ṭaṉaḷ.
I said, 'In this birth of ours we shall not be parted' — and her eyes filled with water.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'While here I live, I leave you not,' I said to calm her fears. / She cried, 'There, then, I read your thought'; And straight dissolved in tears.”
“I told her, We shall never part in this life: alack, her eyes at once filled with tears!”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
(இதுவும் அது) இம்மைப் பிறப்பிற் பிரியலம் என்றேனா= காதல் மிகுதியான் இம்மையாகிய பிறப்பின்கண் யாம் பிரியேம் என்று சொன்னேனாக; கண் நிறை நீர் கொண்டனள்= அதனான் ஏனை மறுமையாகிய பிறப்பின்கண் பிரிவல் என்னும் குறிப்பினேனாகக் கருதி, அவள் தன் கண்நிறைந்த நீரினைக் கொண்டாள்
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the couplet in two pieces. On the first he writes: out of the greatness of his love, I said that in the birth that is immai we shall not part. Two things are added there. The promise is produced by the size of the love, so it is not careful wording; and immai is glossed as one birth, a span. On the second piece he writes: taking it as a hint that in the other birth, the maṟumai one, he would part from her, she took the water that had filled her own eye. Three of his words carry the reading. By naming the other birth outright he supplies the half of the pair that the verse leaves unspoken, which is the whole of her inference. By calling it a குறிப்பு, a hint, he keeps it as something implied rather than announced. And by inserting அதனான், because of that, he ties the tears to the sentence instead of letting the two clauses stand side by side.