Bhartṛhari K422

Ryder

            
            THE INTELLIGENT CORPSE
            
            A beggar in the graveyard cried:
            
            "Awake, my friend, be satisfied
            
            To live again and bear the weight
            
            Of poverty; for I of late
            
            Am weary grown; my heart is led
            
            To crave the comfort of the dead."
            
            The corpse was silent; he was sure
            
            'Twas better to be dead than poor.
            
              — From Bhartṛhari

Brough

            
            ‘Stop but a moment, friend, and rise and carry 
            
            The burden of my weary poverty’
            
            But the dead man, who would not change his peace
            
            For poverty, said nothing in reply.

Tawney

            
            “Rise up and bear one second's space
            
            Grim penury's awful load;
            
            Let me o'erwearied take thy place
            
            In Pluto's dark abode.”—
            
            A poor man thus a corpse bespake;
            
            The corpse, preferring death
            
            To want, would not its silence break
            
            For all his waste of breath.

Telang

verse

Text (not proofread)

उत्तिष्ठ क्षणमेकमुद्रह गुरुं दारिद्र्यभारं सखे

श्रान्तस्तावदहं चिरं मरणजं सेवे त्वदीयं सुखम् ।

इत्युक्तो धनवर्जितेन सहसा गत्वा इमशाने शयो

दारिद्र्यान्मरणं वरं वरमिति ज्ञात्वैव तूष्णीं स्थितः ॥ ५ ॥

endnote

Text (not proofread)

St. V. - S'drdúlavikridita .