Kural Page 9
Of the ploughman’s full-eared corn.
1035.
Those who eat what their hands produce
Neither beg nor refuse a beggar.
1036.
If ploughmen fold their hands
There is neither food nor penance.
1037.
If the ploughed soil dries to a fourth
A fat crop follows without manure.
1038.
Manure more than plough, and after weeding
Guard more than water.
1039.
A negligent husbandman reaps no more joy
Than a neglectful husband.
1040.
The good earth laughs at those who sit back and say,
“We are poor”.
105. Poverty
1041.
There is nothing like poverty
But poverty.
1042.
The villain Poverty makes impossible
Both joy on earth and salvation in heaven.
1043.
Craving, the child of Poverty, kills at once
Ancestral pride and gentle speech.
1044.
Poverty will induce dejection and whining
Even in the well-born.
1045.
The misery of poverty attracts and includes
Various miseries.
1046.
A poor man’s words however well-informed
Carry no weight.
1047.
Even his mother looks askance
At one cursed with want.
1048.
“Will that hunger come again”, wails poverty,
“Which almost killed me yesterday?”
1049.
One may sleep through fire, but the needy
Cannot close his eyes.
1050.
The destitute who will not die themselves
Are a death to others’ soup and salt.*
106. Begging
1051.
Beg of the worthy—if they refuse,
The fault is theirs, not yours.
1052.
Begging is a pleasure if what is asked
Comes without pain.
1053.
There is beauty even in begging
Of an honest and virtuous man.
1054.
Of one who will not deny even in his dream
Begging is like granting.
1055.
Men stand expectant only because the world
Has a few who won’t refuse.
1056.
Where the illness of refusal is absent
All ills of penury disappear.
1057.
The glad heart rejoices within when it sees
One who gives without scorn.
1058.
Without charity this beautiful world
Becomes a stage for puppets.
1059.
What fame will givers achieve
But for beggars?
1060.
The denied suppliant should not chafe—
His own want proves Fortune’s fickleness.
107. The Dread of Begging
1061.
Better a crore of times not beg
Even of dear ones eager to give.
1062.
If some must beg and live, let the Creator
Himself beg and die!
1063.
No greater folly than the hope
That begging will rid poverty.
1064.
More than all the world is his
Who has nothing but won’t beg.
1065.
There is nothing sweeter than even the watery gruel
Earned by one’s own thews.
1066.
No greater disgrace for the tongue than to beg
Even if only water for a cow.
1067.
Of all those who beg, I would beg,
“Beg, if you must, but not of a niggard”.
1068.
Begging, that cheat of a raft, will be wrecked
By the rock of refusal.
1069.
The heart melts at the thought of begging
And dies at the thought of denial.
1070.
What does that word do to the refuser
Which kills the suppliant?
108. The Base
1071.
We have not found such another simulacrum
As the mean who look like men.
1072.
More blessed than the good are the base—
For they have no scruples.
1073.
The base are like the gods: they also do
Whatever they like.
1074.
The base are proud when they find
Men meaner than themselves.
1075.
Fear is the base man’s only code—
And, on occasion, greed.
1076.
The base are like a drum with which
No secret is safe.
1077.
The base will give to a clenched fist only,
Never out of charity.
1078.
A word will move the noble, while the base
Like sugarcane must be crushed.
1079.
The base excel in slandering those
Whose affluence they can’t bear.
1080.
What use are the base in a crisis
Save to rush and sell themselves?
Book III
LOVE
(i) Furtive Love
109. Fascination
1081.
“A goddess? Or a rare peacock? Or a woman
Decked with jewels?” asks my heart amazed.
1082.
Giving look for look, the fair one
Brings an army with her.
1083.
I never saw Death before, and now I see
That it is warring eyes in a woman’s form.
1084.
Don’t eyes that kill all those they lookup on
Ill-beseem a woman?
1085.
Is it Death, or eyes, or an antelope?
This woman’s looks recall all three.
1086.
If my brows were but straight and intervened
Her eyes wouldn’t make mine tremble.
1087.
Like the face-cover on a wild elephant
Is the cloth on her swelling breasts!
1088.
How has my might, fearful in the field,
Fallen, brow-beaten!
1089.
What need of outward jewels has she
Doe-eyed, and decked with modesty?
1090.
Wine won’t delight unless imbibed
But love with a look delights!
110. Hints
1091.
Her greedy eyes have a double role—
They kill and cure.
1092.
Her stealthy glance is more than half
Love’s embrace.
1093.
She looked, and dropped her head, and so
Watered the plant of love.
1094.
When I look, she bends her eyes:
When I don’t, she looks and smiles!
1095.
She didn’t stare at me, but smiled
And seemed to wink.
1096.
Where words are curt, but not the heart,
A wink is as good as a nod.
1097.
Words which are bitter, and looks which feign ire
Only mark the seeming-indifferent.
1098.
Her pitying smile to my pleading look
Hinted happiness.
1099.
To look at each other as if they were strangers
Belongs to lovers alone.
1100.
When eyes with eyes commingle
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What do words avail?
111. The Joys of Embracing
1101.
In her alone, my jewel, can I find
The joys of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
1102.
Medicines differ from ills, their enemies;
But this my jewel is both disease and cure.
1103.
Can even the Lotus-eyed’s heaven give the rest
I find in my love’s soft shoulders?*
1104.
Whence did she get the fire which burns when far,
And cools when near?
1105.
Instant and unfailing the joy
My beloved flower-decked gives.
1106.
Her shoulders must be nectar—
They revive me when I droop.
1107.
Clasping this girl my joy is already
A householder’s who works, shares and eats.*
1108.
Sweet indeed is that embrace wherein
Not a breath comes between.
1109.
To fall out, make up, and embrace again
Are the fruits of love fulfilled.
1110.
Exploring this girl I know
That love, like learning, never ends.
112. In Praise of his Lady
1111.
Hail, aniccham, tender flower!
But more tender is my love.
1112.
My heart, how deluded you are
To match her eyes with common flowers!
1113.
Her body is a shimmer, smile pearls, scent fragrance,
Eyes spears and shoulders bamboos.
1114.
Seeing her the kuvalai* hangs its head
Unable to rival her eyes.
1115.
She wore the aniccham, stalk and all—
Her waist will break, its knell tolled!*
1116.
The stars roam perplexed
Not able to tell the moon from my love.
1117.
Is there a spot on my love’s face
As on the inconstant moon?
1118.
O moon, if you could shine like my love,
You too I shall love.
1119.
O moon, if you would imitate my darling,
Cease to be common.
1120.
The aniccham and the swan’s down
Are spikes to my love’s sole.
113. In Praise of the Beloved
HE
1121.
My love’s white teeth and soft lips
Are milk and honey.
1122.
As life to body, is the bond
Between me and this maid.
1123.
Depart, the idol in my eye,
That my love may enter.
1124.
Embracing my love is life,
Separation from her death.
1125.
I can’t recall her bright eyes—
We recall only the forgotten!
SHE
1126.
He is always before me, even when I wink
Invisible to others.
1127.
I will not paint my eyes and so lose
Even for a trice the sight of my love.
1128.
I dare not swallow anything hot
Lest it hurt my lover within me!
1129.
I never close my eyes lest he escape—
And they call him heartless!*
1130.
He dwells gladly forever in my heart—
And they say he is loveless and has left me.
114. Unabashed
HE
1131.
To know love and to lose it! No way but this—
To mount the madal to have it again.*
1132.
Away with shame! Soul and body
Can bear no more, and will mount the madal.
1133.
I had manliness once and shame, but today
Wish only to mount the madal.
1134.
What is the raft of “Will” and “Won’t”
Against love’s raging waters?
1135.
Night’s yearnings and the madal to cure them
Are the gifts of that braceleted girl.
1136.
Even at midnight I think of the madal
Sleepless for love of her.
1137.
Women are lucky—their love may rage,
But not for them the madal.
SHE
1138.
Love, pitiless and fearless, has dragged
All my secrets out.
1139.
My love saying, “No one knows me”
Has budded and blown in the streets!
1140.
Fools mock us to our face, not having endured
What we have.*
115. Rumours
HE
1141.
Rumours revive hope—those that spread them
Luckily don’t know this.
1142.
Thanks to these people’s senseless talk
My darling is now mine.
1143.
Should I not welcome their rumours
That have made possible what lay beyond?
1144.
Rumour has bloated my love which but for it
Might have shrunk.
1145.
As with each draught grows the drinker’s delight
So with each talk of love.
SHE
1146.
An eclipse is much noised however brief—
So my one day’s meeting with my lover.
1147.
The village gossip manures my love,
And my mother’s reproaches water it.
1148.
To suppress love with scandal
Is to put fire out with ghee!
1149.
“I’ll never leave you”, he said, and left:
So shamed, why shun rumours?
1150.
This village talk is what we wanted—
It is now up to my lover.
(ii) Wedded Love
116. Separation
1151.
Tell me if he is not going; of his soon return
Tell my survivors.*
1152.
To expect was the joy—the union itself
Foreboding separation was a sorrow.
1153.
How hard it is to trust when even he who knows
Breaks his word and goes!
1154.
Is it the trustful you will blame
Loved, assured and left behind?
1155.
If me you would serve, stop him going;
Gone we shall not meet again.
1156.
Of one so cruel as to talk of going
It is vain to hope return and love.
1157.
That my lord has left me
My slipping bracelets tell.*
1158.
It is sad to live among strangers,
Bitter to part with one’s love.
1159.
Can fire burn like love,
Even untouched?
1160.
Strange how many can bear separation,
Survive sorrow, and live!
117. Pining
1161.
I would hide this sickness gladly,
But it wells up like a spring.
1162.
Hide this sickness I cannot;
To tell him who caused it I am ashamed.
1163.
Love and shame hang poised on my life;
My body unable to bear them.
1164.
I see the sea of love but not the raft
On which to cross it.
1165.
If friendshi
p can work such woe,
What will enmity?
1166.
Love’s joy is as the sea,
Its pangs vaster.
1167.
Caught in love’s whirlpool I find no shore;
Darkened I am alone.
1168.
Poor night, putting all things to sleep,
Has only me for company.
1169.
Even more cruel than my cruel lord
Are the long nights now.
1170.
If like my mind my eye could go to him,
It wouldn’t be whelmed in a flood of tears.
118. The Eyes’ Longing
1171.
Who is to blame? My eyes that caused this fever
Or I powerless to help them?
1172.
Why do these eyes now grieve
That thoughtless had their fill?
1173.
The leaping then and the weeping now
Are laughable.
1174.
They caused me a cureless fever and now
Have wept themselves dry.
1175.
They plunged me in a raging sea of love
And for this must suffer sleepless pain.
1176.
O joy, that the causes of my torment
Are themselves tormented!
1177.
Eyes that so greedily gorged on him,
Weep, weep and dry up!
1178.
He made love with words, not heart; his nearness
Is nothing till I see him.
1179.
Sleepless when he is not here, sleepless when he is,
Either way my eyes never rest.
1180.
If all my secrets are known to the people here,
It’s my eye-trumpets you should blame!
119. Pallor
1181.
I agreed to part and so have lost
The right to complain of my pallor.*
1182.
This pallor bestrides me with pride
Because it is his creation.
1183.
He robbed me first of my beauty and shame
And gave in exchange sickness and pallor.
1184.
When my mind and tongue are taken up with him
How does pallor sneak in?
1185.
No sooner is my lord gone
Than pallor comes.
1186.
Darkness lies in wait for the lamp to go out,
And pallor for the embrace to break.
1187.
Locked in embrace I turned a little—
And pallor came in a flood.
1188.
Everyone says, “She is pallid”:
No one, “He left her”.
1189.
What matters to you, my friend, seems to be
Not my pallor but that he shouldn’t be blamed!