INTRODUCTION TO
THE STUDY OF TIRUVALLUVAR
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A Lecture by Prof.Avvai Duraisami Pillai
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Part – 91
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In the course of their life, duty intervenes and effects separation of the newly wedded husband for some months. He wants to inform his wife and take leave but she replies that if his talk is not of his parting, she is ready to hear _ him but if it be about his return, he can inform those who survive his absence.
செல்லாமை யுண்டேல் எனக்கு உரை மற்றுநின்
வல்லரவு வாழ்வார்க்கு உரை (92)
In support of her statement she further continues that love and fire are alike in burning others but the difference lies in that that fire can scorch only those who touch it whereas love burns like anything when the loved are at a distance. At last the tug-of-war between love and duty ends in yielding decisive success to the latter. During his absence loneliness kindles her feelings but she tries to suppress them with all her might; to her sad disappointment, love increases in its intensity. She says that the pleasure of love is indeed immeasurable as ocean but when it begins to torment, on account of partings, greater and vaster still are the sorrows that fill up the melancholy mind. The pain of love becomes acute and tears roll down from her eyes. She looks at her eyes in the mirror and blames them for the lack of fore-thought on their part in showing the person of her husband at the outset arid causing her to fall in love with him. Sleeplessness sets in during nights and its stamp is apparent in her eyes. On noticing this she complains to her companion that her eyes do not sleep when her husband is absent and even when he returns back, they refuse to sleep a wink out of fear that he would leave her once again.
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