Hard is the courtier’s lot who fain would please.Sri Aurobindo
Translations
CWSA.- Volume 5
Part One. Translations from Sanskrit
Section Four.
Bhartrihari. The Century of Life
On the Wicked
Hard is the courtier’s lot who fain would please.
Being silent, “Lo the dumb man!” they gibe; if speech
Eloquent edge his wit, “He seeks to teach,
The chatterer!” else, “Hark to his flatteries!”
Rude, if he sit near; far,– “What want of ease!”
Enduring insult, “Coward!”; if he spurn
The injurer, “Surely a spawn of parents base!”
Such service is in courts, whose laws to learn
Wise sages are perplexed, or tread its ways.