मनोरमा कर्षति चित्तवृत्तिं कदर्थसाध्या क्षणभङ्गुरा च । व्यालावलीगात्रविवृत्तदेहा श्वभ्रोत्थिता पुष्पलतेव लक्ष्मीः ॥ २२ ॥
manōramā karṣati cittavṛttiṁ kadarthasādhyā kṣaṇabhaṅgurā ca | vyālāvalīgātravivṛttadēhā śvabhrōtthitā puṣpalatēva lakṣmīḥ || 22 ||
Translation
Lovely, Fortune draws the mind after her; she is won by base means and breaks in a moment: a flowering creeper sprung from a pit, its body wound about with a row of snakes.
Word by word
- manōramā
- lovely
- karṣati
- draws
- citta
- of the mind
- vṛttiṁ
- the movement
- kadartha
- by base means
- sādhyā
- won
- kṣaṇa
- in a moment
- bhaṅgurā
- breaks
- ca
- and
- vyāla
- of snakes
- āvalī
- with a row
- gātra
- bodies
- vivṛtta
- wound about
- dēhā
- whose body
- śvabhra
- from a pit
- utthitā
- sprung
- puṣpa
- flowering
- latā
- a creeper
- iva
- like
- lakṣmīḥ
- Fortune
Meaning
The sarga closes in a longer metre (upajāti, eleven syllables a line) with one last image. A flowering creeper grows over a pit, beautiful, and its stems are coiled with snakes. Whoever reaches for the flowers falls or is bitten. So fortune is "lovely" (manoramā) and pulls the mind towards her; she is "won by base means" (kadartha-sādhyā: the commentary, by dangerous deeds that risk death and ruin); and she "breaks in a moment". The whole sarga has been building to this: the beauty is real, and so are the pit and the snakes. Rāma does not ask the reader to stop seeing the flowers, only to see what they grow over before reaching for them.