SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
Kalidasa
Bhartrihari. The Century of Life
On Wisdom
Unhonoured in a State when poets dwell
Whose fames range wider than its strong-winged birds,
Whose utterance is for grace adorable
Of chosen speech and art of noble words,
Whose wisdom hundreds come to hear and tell;
The world that nation’s chief for dullness blames,
For poets without wealth are rich and kings:
When values low depreciate costly things,
’Tis the appraiser’s shame and not the gem’s.