Not Fearing the Assembly
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uḷareṉiṉu millāro ṭoppar kaḷaṉañcik / kaṟṟa celaccollā tār.
Though physically present, those who fear the forum and cannot make what they learned reach its hearers are socially as if absent.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Who what they've learned, in penetrating words know not to say, / The council fearing, though they live, as dead are they.”
“Behold the men that are afraid before an assembly and are unable to expound what they have learned: though they breathe, they are no better than dead men.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
களன் அஞ்சிக் கற்ற செலச் சொல்லாதார்= அவைக்களத்தை அஞ்சித் தாம் கற்றவற்றை அதற்கு ஏற்கச் சொல்லமாட்டாதார்; உளர் எனினும் இல்லாரொடு ஒப்பர்= உயிர் வாழ்கின்றார் ஆயினும், உலகத்தாரால் எண்ணப்படாமையின் இறந்தாரோடு ஒப்பர்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar explains that those who fear the assembly and cannot present what they learned suitably are, though alive, not counted by the world and therefore compared with the dead. This is a severe classical hyperbole about public non-participation, not a modern denial of anyone's human worth.