Abstaining from Intoxicants
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tuñciṉār cettāriṉ vēṟalla reññāṉṟu / nañcuṇpār kaḷḷuṇ pavar.
Sleepers are deemed no different from the dead while awareness is absent; likewise, those who drink intoxicants are always likened to people taking poison.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Sleepers are as the dead, no otherwise they seem; / Who drink intoxicating draughts, they poison quaff, we deem.”
“Behold the men who drink the poison called toddy day after day: they are as men that are asleep, neither do they differ from dead men.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
துஞ்சினார் செத்தாரின் வேறல்லர்= உறங்கினார், செத்தாரின் வேறாதல் உடையரேனும், அக்காலத்து அறிவின்மையான் வேறெனப்படார்; கள் உண்பவர் எஞ்ஞான்றும் நஞ்சு உண்பார்= அவ்வாறே கள்ளுண்பார் நஞ்சுண்பாரின் வேறாதல் உடையரேனும், எக்காலத்தும் அறிவின்மையான் வேறெனப்படார், அவர்தாமேயாவர்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar explicitly preserves the factual difference in each comparison. A sleeper is not actually a dead person, but during sleep is not called different on the single ground that awareness is absent. Likewise, a person who drinks intoxicants is not literally a person taking poison, yet the commentary says the two are not distinguished because awareness is repeatedly absent. These are severe moral analogies about awareness, not medical equivalences, predictions of death, diagnoses, identity labels, or references to self-harm. Modern safety responses should remain compassionate and should place urgent decisions with responsible adults or professionals rather than with minors.