Love or Leave Bhartuharis Dilemma

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 24

अनुसंधान - १७•24
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16. Cf. Miller 1967:xvii: "Compelled by his strong sense of personal irony, Bhartihari sees man's paradixical position in a transient, seductive world." This is changed to read as follows in Miller 1990:4: “Compelled by a strong sense of personal irony, Bhartrihari sees man's position as paradoxical in a transient, seductive world." Miller (1967:xviiixxiv) provides further details which support the reading of BH as an author caught in a dilemma. Particularly to be noted is the need she feels to employ the following phrases: "lurking attachment... as well as a revulsion," "undercurrent of turmoil," "painful, perplexing position," "confusion, longing, pain," "enigma which defies... solution," "inescapable bondage and suffering," "Bhartihari's unrest," "He feels the distressing necessity... But he is weak "In tems of Bhartihari's collected verses man's life is an intricate web of conflicting moments and attractions," "he cannot understand the real meaning of time and his own absurd position in existence. Bhartrihari shows a keen awareness for the paradox involved in enjoining a deluded man to abandon the world of his delusion." "Bhartrihari does not simply vacillate between worldly indulgence and asceticism; his confusion is more profound..." and "His ironic sense that none of life's possibilities are what they seem to be..." Cf. further Miller 1990:3-4, 14-19, in particular, the remark: "The poet cannot choose between asceticism and worldly indulgence because he finds them equally attractive, and equally deficient." Also, Bailey 1994:1, 15: "...an irrestible pessimism about the human condition. ... Bhartṛ-hari wrestled with his own incapacity realistically to influence the fragility he perceived as the defining characteristic of existence. ... Bhartṛ-hari uses also [-all] sorts of devices to fracture any kind of absolute vision of received truth which might have been regarded as axiomatic and not in need of defence. ...radical undermining of the available options..."
17. In the following pages, I will utilize existing readable translations if they do not obscure the main idea of a stanza, although they may occasionally not do full justice to the syntax of the original. The objective of this essay does not depend on a literal understanding of the poems. Citing of other's translations will give some idea, incidentally. of the variety of strategies one can employ to make old poetry easily accessible to the contemporary reader..
18. In Miller 1967:65, the second and fourth lines of the translation read: "Two worlds alone are worth a man's devotion" and "And full of fresh wine's heady ardor for sport." Actually, the muda mentioned here may not have anything to do with wine. As in stanza 116 quoted
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