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Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

Part One. Translations from Sanskrit
Section Four. Bhartrihari. The Century of Life

On the Wicked

The Hard Lot of the Courtier

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.