Sanskrit poet (6th or 7th century A.D.)
With fools forbear to argue--better strive to wake the dead.
BHARTRHARI
"On Fools"
A bald man felt the sun's fierce rays
Scorch his defenseless head,
In haste to shun the noontide blaze
Beneath a palm he fled:
Prone as he lay, a heavy fruit
Crashed through his drowsy brain:
Whom fate has sworn to persecute
Finds every refuge vain.
BHARTRHARI
"The Praise of Destiny"
I have not wasted life, but life hath wasted me.
BHARTRHARI
"Against the Desire of Worldly Things"
Trees are bowed down with weight of fruit,
Clouds big with rain hang low,
So good men humbly bear success,
Nor overweening grow.
BHARTRHARI
"The Path of Altruism"
A man may tear a jewel
From a sea monster's jaws,
Cross a tumultuous sea
Of raging tides,
Or twine garlandwise
A wrathful serpent on his head.
But no man can alter
The thoughts of an obstinate fool.
BHARTRHARI
"A Man May Tear a Jewel"
Those who possess that treasure which no thief can take away,
Which, though on suppliants freely spent, increaseth day by day,
The source of inward happiness which shall outlast the earth--
To them e'en kings should yield the palm, and own their higher worth.
BHARTRHARI
"The Praise of the Wise Man"
Nothing is born which Death makes not subject of his state.
BHARTRHARI
"Of Time the Destroyer"
While his body's vigor is whole
And old age is remote;
While his sensuous powers are unimpaired
And life not yet exhausted;
Only then would a wise man
Strive to perfect his soul.
Why attempt to dig a well
When the house is already burning?
BHARTRHARI
"While His Body's Vigor is Whole"
Hope is the name of this river, whose water is Desire,
And Thirst the waves thereof.
BHARTRHARI
"Verses on Renunciation"
Time is the root of all this earth;
These creatures, who from Time had birth,
Within his bosom at the end
Shall sleep; Time hath nor enemy nor friend.
BHARTRHARI
"Time"
Morn after morn dispels the dark,
Bearing our lives away;
Absorbed in cares we fail to mark
How swift our years decay;
Some maddening draught hath drugged our souls,
In love with vital breath,
Which still the same sad chart unrolls,
Birth, eld, disease, and death.
BHARTRHARI
"Against the Desire of Worldly Things"
Poets are ever lords, though short of pence.
BHARTRHARI
"The Praise of the Wise Man"
She who is always in my thoughts prefers
Another man, and does not think of me.
Yet he seeks for another's love, not hers;
And some poor girl is grieving for my sake.
Why then, the devil take
Both her and him and love and her and me.
BHARTRHARI
Satakatraya
Our life is like th' unstable wave,
Our bloom of youth decays.
Our joys are brief as lightning flash
In summer's cloudy days,
Our riches fleet as swift as thought;
Faith in the One Supreme
Alone will bear us o'er the gulfs
Of Being's stormy stream.
BHARTRHARI
"Of Time the Destroyer"
I've wandered over many lands, and reaped withal no fruit,
I've laid my pride of rank aside, and pressed my baffled suit,
At stranger boards, like shameless crow, I've eaten bitter bread,
But fierce Desire, that raging fire, still clamours to be fed.
BHARTRHARI
"Against the Desire of Worldly Things"
Neither rings, bright chains, nor bracelets, perfumes, flowers, nor well-trimmed hair,
Grace a man like polished language, th' only jewel he should wear.
BHARTRHARI
"The Praise of the Wise Man"
He brings thee joy, thy foes dismays,
Thy secrets hides, proclaims thy praise,
With timely gifts relieves thy need,
Thus may'st thou know the "friend indeed."
BHARTRHARI
"The Path of Altruism"
Time did not fly, yet we are gone.
BHARTRHARI
"Verses on Renunciation"
Sweet maid, you perform a singular feat
With the archer's bow.
You pierce hearts not with arrows,
But with strands of your beauty.
BHARTRHARI
"Sweet Maid"
When I knew
a thing or two, pride
kept me blind.
I was a like a rutting buck, mind so
stained I imagined
"I'm a buddha."
Then bit by bit I approached
the truly wise-minded
and saw myself a fool--
pride was a
fever
that finally broke.
BHARTRHARI
The Epigrams Attributed to Bhartrihari