The Subtleties of Sulking
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uḷḷiṉē ṉeṉṟēṉmaṟ ṟeṉmaṟantī reṉṟeṉṉaip / pullāḷ pulattak kaṉaḷ.
'I thought of you,' I said. 'So you had forgotten me,' she said to that, and did not, after all, put her arms round me; she took to sulking instead.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'Each day I called to mind your charms,' 'O, then, you had forgot,' / She cried, and then her opened arms, Forthwith embraced me not.”
“I said to her, I called thee to mind when away: and she that was about to clasp me to her arms went off in a pet saying, Thou hadst forgotten me then!”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
உள்ளினேன் என்றேன்= பிரிந்தகாலத்து நின்னை இடையின்றி நினைந்தேன் என்னும் கருத்தால், யான் உள்ளினேன் என்றேன்; மற்று என்மறந்தீர் என்று என்னைப் புல்லாள் புலத்தக்கனள்= என, அதனை ஒருகான் மறந்து பின்நினைந்தேன் என்றதாகக் கருதி, என்னையிடையே மறந்தீர் என்று சொல்லி, முன் புல்லுதற்கு அமைந்தவள் அஃது ஒழிந்து புலத்தற்கு அமைந்தாள், எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar splits the couplet into two pieces. On the first, உள்ளினேன் என்றேன், he restores the intention behind the remark: I said 'I thought of you' meaning that through the whole time we were apart I thought of you without a break, இடையின்றி. That word is the tenderness of the line, and it is nowhere in the couplet's own vocabulary. On the second piece, மற்று என் மறந்தீர் என்று என்னைப் புல்லாள் புலத்தக்கனள், he sets out her reasoning precisely: she took him to have said that he forgot once and afterwards remembered, ஒருகான் மறந்து பின்நினைந்தேன், and so she said that he had forgotten her in between. Then comes the most consequential clause in the gloss: முன் புல்லுதற்கு அமைந்தவள் அஃது ஒழிந்து புலத்தற்கு அமைந்தாள். She who had already settled herself to embrace him left that off and settled instead into sulking. The verse itself says only that she did not embrace. That the embrace had already begun is the commentator's, and Pope reached the same reading independently when he wrote of her opened arms.