Virtue

Poem : 331

Lowest and meanest lore, that bids men trust secure,
In things that pass away, as things that shall endure!

Explanation :
That ignorance which considers those things to be stable which are not so, is dishonourable (to the wise).

Poem : 332

As crowds round dancers fill the hall, is wealth's increase;
Its loss, as throngs dispersing, when the dances cease.

Explanation :
The acquisition of wealth is like the gathering together of an assembly for a theatre; its expenditure is like the breaking up of that assembly.

Poem : 333

Unenduring is all wealth; if you wealth enjoy,
Enduring works in working wealth straightway employ.

Explanation :
Wealth is perishable; let those who obtain it immediately practise those (virtues) which are imperishable.

Poem : 334

As 'day' it vaunts itself; well understood, 'tis knife',
That daily cuts away a portion from thy life.

Explanation :
Time, which shows itself (to the ignorant) as if it were something (real) is in the estimation of the wise (only) a saw which cuts down life.

Poem : 335

Before the tongue lie powerless, 'mid the gasp of gur gling breath,
Arouse thyself, and do good deeds beyond the power of death.

Explanation :
Let virtuous deeds be done quickly, before the biccup comes making the tongue silent.

Poem : 336

Existing yesterday, today to nothing hurled!-
Such greatness owns this transitory world.

Explanation :
This world possesses the greatness that one who yesterday was is not today.

Poem : 337

Who know not if their happy lives shall last the day,
In fancies infinite beguile the hours away!

Explanation :
Innumerable are the thoughts which occupy the mind of (the unwise), who know not that they shall live another moment.

Poem : 338

Birds fly away, and leave the nest deserted bare;
Such is the short-lived friendship soul and body share.

Explanation :
The love of the soul to the body is like (the love of) a bird to its egg which it flies away from and leaves empty.

Poem : 339

Death is sinking into slumbers deep;
Birth again is waking out of sleep.

Explanation :
Death is like sleep; birth is like awaking from it.

Poem : 340

The soul in fragile shed as lodger courts repose:-
Is it because no home's conclusive rest it knows?

Explanation :
It seems as if the soul, which takes a temporary shelter in a body, had not attained a home.