Learning by Listening
Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
ceviyiṟ cuvaiyuṇarā vāyuṇarviṉ mākka / ḷaviyiṉum vāḻiṉu meṉ
What does it matter, the verse asks with severe hyperbole, whether people live or die if they know the mouth’s taste but never discern the taste available through learning?
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“His mouth can taste, but ear no taste of joy can give! / What matter if he die, or prosperous live?”
“Behold the men that taste with the tongue but know not the taste of the ear: what doth it matter to the world whether they live or die?”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
செவியிற் சுவை உணரா வாய் உணர்வின் மாக்கள்= செவியான் நுகரப்படும் சுவைகளை உணராத வாயுணர்வினையுடைய மாந்தர்; அவியினும் வாழினும் என்= சாவினும் வாழினும் உலகிற்கு வருவுது என்னை?
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar takes the final question literally within its ancient rhetoric: people who know only oral taste and not the intellectual relish received through the ear contribute nothing to the world whether they live or die. A responsible modern reading must reject that dehumanizing verdict. The couplet’s hyperbole presses for receptive learning; it does not shame food, appetite, bodies, disability, educational exclusion, or anyone’s existence, and it is never an instruction toward death or self-harm.