SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
Kalidasa
Bhartrihari. The Century of Life
Miscellaneous Verses
How like are these whose labour does not cease,
Statesman and poet, in their several cares;
Anxious their task, no work of splendid ease!
One ranges far for costly words, prepares
Pure forms and violence popular disdains,
The voice of rare assemblies strives to find,
Slowly adds phrase to noble phrase and means
Each line around the human heart to wind.
The statesman seeks the nation’s wealth from far;
Not to the easy way of violence prone
He puts from him the brutal clang of war
And seeks a better kind dominion,
To please the just in their assemblies high,
Slowly to build his careful steps between
A noble line of linkèd policy,–
He shapes his acts a nation’s heart to win.
Their burden and their toil make these two kin.