Indian Antiquary Vol 05

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 83

MARCH, 1876.]
BHARTRIHARI'S VAIRÅGYA SATAKAM.
METRICAL VERSION OF BHARTRIHARI'S VAIRAGYA SATAKAM.
BY PROF. C. I. TAWNEY, M.A., CALCUTTA.
(Continued from page 3.) of the proud man.
Envy blights virtue, eld good looks, death THOSE men may boast of being born, whose threatens all things born,
1 skulls gleam white on Siva's head, The hermit's humble life alone gives undisturbed The final meed of holy saints, and chiefs whose repose.
souls in battle fled; But oft I muse how men can swell with pride For life fast slipping from my hold at causing those to bow,
I've borne the last and worst disgrace, Who, if they save their precious lives, care I've sat 'mongst wealthy fools, and told little for the when and how.
My merits with unblushing face.
You are a lord of acres,
But we are lords of song; And we subdue the subtle,
If you subdue the strong; The rich of you are speaking,
In me the wise believe, And if you find me irksome,
Why then-I take my leave.
We speak with awe of glorious kings, of haughty
lords, and knights, Of courtiers ranged in glittering rows, of tri
umphs and of fights, Of tuneful bards that hymn their praise : who
honours as he ought That "eloqnent and mighty Death" that sweeps
them into nought ?
Of Self-renunciation. The day of pleasure's past and gone,
Of Time the Destroyer. Long through this world we've wandered on,
Our parents long have passed away, And weary roached the brink :
All old familiar faces fled, By Gangi's stream shrills forth our cry,
Destruction nears us day by day, *0 Siva, Siva, Lord most high,
Like trees in sandy river-bed. Help, Siva, or we sink."
Where many dwellers once were seen, one only When honour fades, and wealth departs, and
now survives, boons are craved in vain,
Again that house is filled with store of joyous And friends are dead, and servants fled, and
human lives, joy exchanged for pain,
Then all are swept away again; thus wielding This course alone becomes the wise--to seek
Night and Day those mountain caves
As dice, destruction's wedded powers with Whence softly flow through woods below the
helpless mortals play. sanctifying waves. Why suffer endless woes in vain
Shall we retire to Gangi's brink, The favour of the great to gain ?
Or cull the sweets of honeyed lays, Let falso ambition's longings cease,
Or court & wife whom all men praise ? Learn to possess thy soul in peace,
Life's short-we know not what to think. And thou hast won the wishing-cap That poni's earth's treasures in thy lap. O for those days when I shall dwell alone
Among the snowy hills by Ganga's stream, of the town' the best the will of Plensure. In stony torpor stiffened on a stone, In happiness me'n fear disease, the laughty Inly conversing with tho One Supreme. shrink from scom,
Rapi in devotion, dead to all beside, The rich, the wise, the men of might, dread And deer shall truy their horns against my princes, critics, foes;
senseless Lide. Le Siva u Parvati,