The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 126
CHAPTER 126
THE LOSING OF THE SENSE OF A DIGNIFIED RESERVE
SHE
1251. The door that is bolted with the bolt of modesty will yet yield to the axe of an overpowering love.
1252. Heartless is this thing called Love: for it oppresseth my heart even in the dead of night.
1253. I try indeed to shut my love up within my heart : but like a sneeze it breaketh out of itself without a warning.
1254. I was proud that I was correct and decorous in my behaviour: but alas ! love rendeth every veil and showeth itself in public.
1255. The stern self-respect that refuseth to seek the beloved though he hath cruelly deserted, is a thing unknown to the love-sick fair.
1256. How thou lovest me, O Grief! Thou wantest me to follow after him who hath deserted me cruelly !
1257. If the beloved but favour us with his love, we at once forget all our reserve.
1258. It is the subdued speech of that false one skilled in many a wily art, that breaketh through all the defences of our womanly decorum.
1259. I wanted to go away in a huff: but I went and embraced him, for I saw that my heart had already joined him.
1260. Can they ever think of refusing to be reconciled, whose heart melteth even as fat in the fire ?
