वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

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[2] Victorious is divine Sarasvatī,
Who aideth bards of keen and nimble wit
To see the world, as 'twere a jujube-fruit,
Lying within the hollow of their hands.
Victorious, too, is Hari, resting now,
The while he smileth on the shepherd lads
Whose upraised arms bend ¹ 'neath the awful weight
Of their vast burden; yet cry unto him:
‘Ah, weary art thou, let the mountain be;
We will sustain it, Kṛṣṇa, lord of all’!
[3] May he ² whose waist is girded keep you safe,
Yea, he whose serried furrows brightly shine;
E'en while the zone he hath too tightly drawn
Doth work distraction by its beauteousness.³
[4] Victorious is the god ⁴ whose crescent gleams
Like to a silvern pearl by Umā set ⁵
Upon his brow, when from his blazing eye
She gathereth the black collyrium.
How blessèd are those souls beneficent
Who work the weal of others, for to them
The moon that openeth the lotus-buds
Doth give a twofold meed of radiance ⁶!
[5] The wise say sooth: ‘More loathsome than a snake
Is he whose soul is filled with wickedness’:
The serpent ⟨hateth the ichneumon tribe⟩,
But leaves his brethren safe; while knavish folk
With venomed tongues ⟨destroy their nearest kin⟩.⁷
¹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘arms bent in vain.’ ² Kṛṣṇa.
³ Tel. ed. interchanges this stanza with the one following.
⁴ Śiva. ⁵ Srirangam text, against the metre, adds ‘upon his head.
⁶ Translated in Böhtlingk, Indische Sprüche, 2 ed., No. 4552, St. Petersburg, 1870–1873.
⁷ Böhtlingk, op. cit. No. 6214. The stanza is still popular in Mithila (see Grierson,