The Pleasures of Temporary Estrangement
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tavaṟila rāyiṉun tāmvīḻvār meṉṟō / ḷakaṟali ṉāṅkoṉ ṟuṭaittu.
Though there is no fault in them, to be held away from the soft shoulders of the ones they love: right there, in the being held away, is a something of its own.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Though free from fault, from loved one's tender arms / To be estranged a while hath its own special charms.”
“Even when one is free from faults there is a delight when the arms of the beloved are withdrawn from one’s clasp.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
தவறு இலராயினும், தாம் வீழ்வார் மென்றோள் அகறலின்= ஆடவர் தங்கண் தவறு இலராயினும் உடையார்போல ஊடப்பட்டுத் தாம் விரும்பும் மகளிருடைய மெல்லியதோள்களைக் கூடப்பெறாத எல்லைக்கண்; ஆங்கு ஒன்று உடைத்து= அவர்க்கு அப்பெற்றியதோர் இன்பம் பயத்தலுடைத்து, எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the first half like this: though the men have no fault at their own side, they are sulked at as though they had one, and so stand within the limit of not obtaining the soft shoulders of the women they love. On ஆங்கு ஒன்று உடைத்து he says that inside that very limit there is what yields them a pleasure of that particular kind. His எல்லைக்கண், within the boundary, treats the separation as a place rather than as a cause, and that is what keeps the pleasure inside the interval instead of after it. This is a paraphrase; his verbatim commentary is carried separately and unaltered.