The Pleasures of Temporary Estrangement
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uṇaliṉu muṇṭa taṟaliṉitu kāmam / puṇartali ṉūṭa liṉitu.
Sweeter than eating more is the digesting of what has already been eaten; and in love, sweeter than joining again is the sulking.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“'Tis sweeter to digest your food than 'tis to eat; / In love, than union's self is anger feigned more sweet.”
“Sweeter is digestion than the meal: even so is the lovers’ quarrel sweeter than the embrace.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
உணலினும் உண்டது அறல் இனிது= உயிர்க்கு மேல் உண்பதனினும் முன் உண்டது அறுதல் இன்பந்தரும்; காமம் புணர்தலின் ஊடல் இனிது= அதுபோலக் காமத்திற்கு மேற்புணர்தலினும், முன்னைத் தவறுபற்றி ஊடுதல் இன்பந்தரும், எ-று.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the first half like this: for a living body, digesting what was eaten before gives more pleasure than eating further on top of it. On the second half he says that in the same way, for love, sulking over an earlier fault gives more pleasure than joining further. The word he adds to both halves is மேல், further or on top. He says nothing against eating and nothing against union; what he places below is the adding of more to what is already had. His two lower terms are additions and his two higher terms both work on something that already exists — உண்டது, the portion already eaten, and முன்னைத் தவறு, the fault that has already happened. This is a paraphrase; his verbatim commentary is carried separately and unaltered.