Indian Poetry Part 17

"Bringing dark things into daylight, solving doubts that vex the mind, Like an open eye is Wisdom--he that hath her not is blind."

"Childless art thou? dead thy children? leaving thee to want and doole?

Less thy misery than his is, who lives father to a fool."

"One wise son makes glad his father, forty fools avail him not: One moon silvers all that darkness which the silly stars did dot."

"Ease and health, obeisant children, wisdom, and a fair-voiced wife-- Thus, great King! are counted up the five felicities of life."

"For the son the sire is honoured; though the bow-cane bendeth true, Let the strained string crack in using, and what service shall it do?"

"That which will not be, will not be--and what is to be, will be: Why not drink this easy physic, antidote of misery?"

"Nay! but faint not, idly sighing, 'Destiny is mightiest,'

Sesamum holds oil in plenty, but it yieldeth none unpressed."

"Ah! it is the Coward's babble, 'Fortune taketh, Fortune gave;'

Fortune! rate her like a master, and she serves thee like a slave."

"Two-fold is the life we live in--Fate and Will together run: Two wheels bear life's chariot onward--Will it move on only one?"

"Look! the clay dries into iron, but the potter moulds the clay: Destiny to-day is master--Man was master yesterday."

"Worthy ends come not by wis.h.i.+ng. Wouldst thou? Up, and win it, then!

While the hungry lion slumbers, not a deer comes to his den."

"Silly gla.s.s, in splendid settings, something of the gold may gain; And in company of wise ones, fools to wisdom may attain."

"Labours spent on the unworthy, of reward the labourer balk; Like the parrot, teach the heron twenty words, he will not talk."

"Ah! a thousand thoughts of sorrow, and a hundred things of dread, By the fools unheeded, enter day by day the wise man's head."

"Of the day's impending dangers, Sickness, Death, and Misery, One will be; the wise man, waking, ponders which that one will be."

"Good things come not out of bad things; wisely leave a longed-for ill.

Nectar being mixed with poison serves no purpose but to kill."

"Give to poor men, son of Kunti--on the wealthy waste not wealth; Good are simples for the sick man, good for nought to him in health."

"Be his Scripture-learning wondrous, yet the cheat will be a cheat; Be her pasture ne'er so bitter, yet the cow's milk will taste sweet."

"Trust not water, trust not weapons; trust not clawed nor horned things; Neither give thy soul to women, nor thy life to Sons of Kings."

"Look! the Moon, the silver roamer, from whose splendour darkness flies, With his starry cohorts marching, like a crowned king, through the skies: All his grandeur, all his glory, vanish in the Dragon's jaw; What is written on the forehead, that will be, and nothing more."

"Counsel in danger; of it Unwarned, be nothing begun; But n.o.body asks a Prophet, Shall the risk of a dinner be run?"

"Avarice begetteth anger; blind desires from her begin; A right fruitful mother is she of a countless sp.a.w.n of sin."

"Be second and not first!--the share's the same If all go well. If not, the Head's to blame."

"Pa.s.sion will be Slave or Mistress: follow her, she brings to woe; Lead her, 'tis the way to Fortune. Choose the path that thou wilt go."

"When the time of trouble cometh, friends may ofttimes irk us most: For the calf at milking-hour the mother's leg is tying-post."

"In good-fortune not elated, in ill-fortune not dismayed, Ever eloquent in council, never in the fight affrayed, Proudly emulous of honour, steadfastly on wisdom set; These six virtues in the nature of a n.o.ble soul are met.

Whoso hath them, gem and glory of the three wide worlds is he; Happy mother she that bore him, she who nursed him on her knee."

"Small things wax exceeding mighty, being cunningly combined; Furious elephants are fastened with a rope of gra.s.s-blades twined."

"Let the household hold together, though the house be ne'er so small; Strip the rice-husk from the rice-grain, and it groweth not at all."

"Sickness, anguish, bonds, and woe Spring from wrongs wrought long ago."

"Keep wealth for want, but spend it for thy wife, And wife, and wealth, and all, to guard thy life."

"Death, that must come, comes n.o.bly when we give Our wealth, and life, and all, to make men live."

"Floating on his fearless pinions, lost amid the noonday skies, Even thence the Eagle's vision kens the carca.s.s where it lies; But the hour that comes to all things comes unto the Lord of Air, And he rushes, madly blinded, to die helpless in the snare."