Manly Exertion
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maṭiyuḷāṇ māmukaṭi yeṉpa maṭiyilāṉ / ṟāḷuḷā ṭāmaraiyi ṉāḷ
They say the goddess of misfortune dwells with entrenched sloth, while the lotus goddess of prosperity takes her stand at the feet of one free from sloth. These are literary personifications, not judgements about gender, body, colour, birth, poverty, or human worth.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“In sluggishness is seen misfortune's lurid form, the wise declare; / Where man unslothful toils, she of the lotus flower is there!”
“In sloth hath the Genius of Wretchedness her home: but the Lotus-born One resideth in the labour of him who yieldeth not to sloth.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
மா முகடி மடி உளாள்= கரியசேட்டை ஒருவன் மடியின்கண்ணே உறையும்; தாமரையினாள் மடி இலான் தாள் உளாள் என்ப= திருமகள் மடியிலானது முயற்சிக்கண்ணே உறையும் என்று சொல்லுவர் அறிந்தோர்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar reads the couplet as learned people saying that Mūdevi, the goddess personifying misfortune, dwells with the slothful, whereas the lotus-seated Lakshmi dwells at the feet of the person free from sloth. Both are female divine personifications of want and prosperity. The image must not turn poverty into proof of laziness, women into moral objects, or feet into social subordination. Its bounded movement is that, once barriers are addressed, entrenched avoidable neglect makes room for preventable loss, while vigilant effort gives prosperity a place to stand.