Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/299

1156. When he hath the hardness to say to my very face, I shall depart, I give up all hope of his ever coming back to save me.^[1]

1157. Would not my close-fitting bracelets themselves that have slipped from my wrists raise the bruit of the parting of my lord ?^[2]

1158. Bitter is life in a place where there are no bosom friends : but bitterer far is separation from the beloved one.

1159. Hath fire, which burneth only when it is touched the power, like love, to burn when it is far away ?

1160. Many there are, are there not, who live through the pangs of leave-taking and of separation, and survive till the return of the beloved!

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1. See 1160 below.
2. The fancy is that her grief at the very thought of his parting is so intense that her arms have lost flesh and allowed the bracelets to slip of themselves.