Gahakoso Part 2

Author(s): Madhav Vasudev Patvardhan, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 51

TI
170. Laudable mediocrity :
Therefore the mediocre alone are preferable. I shall have nothing to do with both the wicked and the good. (For) just as a wicked man distresses when he is seen, so too a good man distresses when he is not seen (any longer).
171. Salutary advice : 1 . Do not look at him with half-closed eyes (i.e. do not cast side-long glaness at him). Look at him in a natural way. (For one thing) you will be able to see him quite well (i.e. far better than if you partially close your eyes), and moreover you will be regarded by people to be an innocent (naive) girl,
172. Meek devotion even in anger :
I remember how she, sulking the whole day, attended to the (routine) household chores and (then) fell asleep (at night) at my feet, although she was greatly distressed at my lapse (or misbehaviour).
173. Do not be too fastidious :
(Even) after having first blazed in the hut of a cândāla (pariah), fire blazes (also) in sacrificial halls (or enclosures). Surely men should not be shunned (even) when they have fallen on bad times.
174. The real reason :
If your wife is a model of virtue and if we are, oh charming one, unchaste, may I reveal the secret reason behind it? There is no young man who is comparable to you (in sexual attractivenes, in the whole world).
17:. Solace in misfortune :
Although all my belongings were burnt in the course of the village-fire, still my heart is quite happy, because he (my beloved lover) took the jar of water directly from my hand in order to extinguish the fire).
176 The philanthropist's prayer :
I would prefer to be born in a forest-region even as a dwarfish (stunted) tree-stump with all its leaves shattered. But never would I like to be born in this mortal world as a sensitive (kind-hearted or compassionate) person eager to help others but not having the means to do so.
177. Sexual charm leading to rashness :
(It is only) the flood of the river God, and the midnight in the rainy season that know your sexual attractiveness and my fool-hardiness unbecoming (or unusual) in the case of women, (in trying to swim across the flooded river).