Pasuram 1.4.4

Tamil text and transliteration:

என் நீர்மை கண்டு இரங்கி இது தகாது என்னாத
என் நீல முகில் வண்ணற்கு என் சொல்லி யான் சொல்லுகேனோ?
நன் நீர்மை இனி அவர்கண் தங்காது என்று ஒரு வாய்ச்சொல்
நன் நீல மகன்றில்காள்! நல்குதிரோ? நல்கீரோ?

eṉ nīrmai kaṇṭu iraṅki itu takātu eṉṉāta
eṉ nīla mukil vaṇṇaṟku eṉ colli yāṉ collukēṉō?
naṉ nīrmai iṉi avarkaṇ taṅkātu eṉṟu oru vāyccol
naṉ nīla makaṉṟilkāḷ! nalkutirō? nalkīrō?

Preamble:

Seeing that Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī was commissioning several birds, a few blue-tinted Aṉṟil (Cakravāka) birds approached her. as if to enquire whether they could also be of service to her. But the dejected lover that she was, she was struck down by the futility of sending a message to the Lord who remained aloof despite an intimate knowledge of her plight, her inordinate love for Him, during their erstwhile union and failed to see the injustice of the present separation. And yet, she asked the blue birds to apprise her blue-hued Lord of her precarious condition, with little or no chance of survival.

English translation of verse 1.4.4:

Ye Aṉṟil birds of sapphire hue!
Tell Him I am about to die, will you?
What have I to tell my cloud-hued Lord,
Who relents not, having seen how I fared
(During our union), and sees not, on his part
‘Tis most unjust, from me to depart?

Note

When Sri Parāśara Bhaṭṭar was discoursing on this song, a Tamil Scholar contended that the expression, “having seen my plight”, in the first line (original text) should be ‘having heard of my plight’. His doubt was how, when they had already been locked in the joy of union, could God, one of the pair, see the signs of pain of the other, after separation. To this, Bhaṭṭar replied: “Don’t you know what the Tamil Savant Tiruvaḷḷuvar has said? The lady-love lay in tight embrace with her lover but, now and then, they got a little unlocked while turning on their sides; this slight distance between them was enough to make her lose the colour on her skin, a decolouration resulting from the gloom of separation! Again, in the poems of ‘Kuṟuntokai’ it has been said, whereever, wherever the lover touched, there, there, a flush of colour arose; wherever, wherever the touch had ceased, there, there, the colour sank. The scholar could at once realise that the message in question only reminds the Lord of what He had Himself noticed during His erstwhile union with Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī.