SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
Kalidasa
Bhartrihari. The Century of Life
On Fate
A serpent in a basket crushed despaired,
His organs all with hunger weak and worn,
While patiently at night the mouse prepared
A hole in that self basket. Ere the morn
By his own industry, such Nature’s law,
The patient labourer fills the serpent’s maw.
He with that food replenished, by the way
The mouse had made escaped. O world, behold
The mighty master of thy sad decay
And fortunate rising, Fate, the godhead old.