Wealth

Poem : 1031

Howe'er they roam, the world must follow still the plougher's team;
Though toilsome, culture of the ground as noblest toil esteem.

Explanation :
Agriculture, though laborious, is the most excellent (form of labour); for people, though they go about (in search of various employments), have at last to resort to the farmer.

Poem : 1032

The ploughers are the linch-pin of the world; they bear
Them up who other works perform, too weak its toils to share.

Explanation :
Agriculturists are (as it were) the linch-pin of the world for they support all other workers who cannot till the soil.

Poem : 1033

Who ploughing eat their food, they truly live;
The rest to others bend subservient, eating what they give.

Explanation :
They alone live who live by agriculture; all others lead a cringing, dependent life.

Poem : 1034

O'er many a land they 'll see their monarch reign,
Whose fields are shaded by the waving grain.

Explanation :
Patriotic farmers desire to bring all other states under the control of their own king.

Poem : 1035

They nothing ask from others, but to askers give,
Who raise with their own hands the food on which they live.

Explanation :
Those whose nature is to live by manual labour will never beg but give something to those who beg.

Poem : 1036

For those who 've left what all men love no place is found,
When they with folded hands remain who till the ground.

Explanation :
If the farmer's hands are slackened, even the ascetic state will fail.

Poem : 1037

Reduce your soil to that dry state, When ounce is quarter-ounce's weight;
Without one handful of manure, Abundant crops you thus secure.

Explanation :
If the land is dried so as to reduce one ounce of earth to a quarter, it will grow plentifully even without a handful of manure.

Poem : 1038

To cast manure is better than to plough;
Weed well; to guard is more than watering now

Explanation :
Manuring is better than ploughing; after weeding, watching is better than watering (it).

Poem : 1039

When master from the field aloof hath stood;
Then land will sulk, like wife in angry mood.

Explanation :
If the owner does not (personally) attend to his cultivation, his land will behave like an angry wife and yield him no pleasure.

Poem : 1040

The earth, that kindly dame, will laugh to see,
Men seated idle pleading poverty.

Explanation :
The maiden, Earth, will laugh at the sight of those who plead poverty and lead an idle life.