इन्द्रायुधवदालोलनानारागमनोहरा । लोला तडिदिवोत्पन्नध्वंसिनी च जडाश्रया ॥ १६ ॥
indrāyudhavadālōlanānārāgamanōharā | lōlā taḍidivōtpannadhvaṁsinī ca jaḍāśrayā || 16 ||
Translation
Charming like the rainbow with its many shifting colours, fickle, gone like lightning as soon as she appears, she rests on the dull.
Word by word
- indrāyudhavad
- (indrāyudhavat) like the rainbow
- ālōla
- shifting
- nānā
- with many
- rāga
- colours
- manōharā
- charming
- lōlā
- fickle
- taḍit
- lightning
- iva
- like
- utpanna
- as soon as she appears
- dhvaṁsinī
- gone
- ca
- and
- jaḍa
- on the dull
- āśrayā
- she rests
Meaning
The rainbow is beautiful and has no substance; it is gone when the light moves. Rāga means "colour" and also "attachment": fortune charms with many hues and binds with many attachments. Lightning perishes in the moment it is born. And lightning, like the rainbow, rests on the clouds, on water (jala), which by the poets' convention is also jaḍa, the dull: fortune, the commentary says, is most often found with fools. The verse gathers the brilliance and the brevity together. What dazzles most is often what lasts least, and the reader who builds on it builds on a rainbow.