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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
The Dvātrimśikā Dealing with 'Qualities'
(1) What kind of a man is he who gives offence by setting aside good breeding and tradition in front of an ordinary person ? (Not content with such behaviour,) you have set them aside in front of exalted persons of independent intellect and sight, as by your overgreat fondness for 'Qualities' you keep creating Renown over the world all by yourself, thus badly cheating those to whom respect is due ( i.e., bards etc. whose privilege it is to spread peoples' fame ) !
(2) My intellect allows me to state that your royal wealth is with those who approach you for shelter, the result of your good breeding in your sons, your judgement in your maxims (or, logical stand-points )101 and your ambition in the living-apartments of your enemies. I challenge anybody to declare in the same way where your Fame is to be found ( which is difficult, as shown in the following stanza ).
. (3) Possessed of motion, your Renown wanders in one direction, and, after having moved there, and even while staying there, shines forth in the other directions ! What is it thus appropriate to state, that it has moved or that it has not moved, its form being spread over all the ten directions of the world ?102
(4) A person's mere desire for 'Qualities' is most decidedly praiseworthy in the eyes of good people. It is, however, doubtful whether this is also the case with this actual passion which you have for them : for all of them have manifested themselves simultaneously in you and, understanding your Fame to be a helpless woman, they have overwhelmed her before your very eyes, so that she went into the wildernesses where hearing is easy!
(5) Listen! I proclaim it loudly! An intelligent person may laugh at me as he pleases ! You are keen on enterprises serving your own purpose, averse to the interest of others and regardless of shame, as even now you are not satisfied as yet with your Renown, whose path is that of Lakşmi (i.e., which is acquired by liberality)
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