श्रीराम उवाच । आयुः पल्लवकोणाग्रलम्बाम्बुकणभङ्गुरम् । उन्मत्तमिव संत्यज्य यात्यकाण्डे शरीरकम् ॥ १ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | āyuḥ pallavakōṇāgralambāmbukaṇabhaṅguram | unmattamiva saṁtyajya yātyakāṇḍē śarīrakam || 1 ||
Translation
Śrī Rāma said: Life, as fragile as a drop of water hanging from the tip of a leaf, leaves the little body out of season, as if it were mad.
Word by word
- śrī
- Śrī
- rāma
- Rāma
- uvāca
- said
- āyuḥ
- life
- pallava
- of a leaf
- kōṇa
- from the point
- agra
- the tip
- lamba
- hanging
- ambu
- of water
- kaṇa
- a drop
- bhaṅguram
- as fragile as
- unmattam
- mad
- iva
- as if
- saṁtyajya
- leaving
- yāti
- goes
- akāṇḍē
- out of season
- śarīrakam
- the little body
Meaning
Rāma has looked at the objects of the senses (1.12) and at fortune, the means of having them (1.13). Now he looks at life itself, āyus, the span of time in which everything is sought. The first image is exact: a drop of water at the point of a leaf, held by almost nothing, gone at the first breath of wind. And life leaves "out of season" (akāṇḍe), at no fixed time, like a madman who walks out of a house without warning or reason. The diminutive śarīraka, "the little body", already shows how small the body looks once this is seen. The reader is not told anything new: everyone knows life is short. What the verse asks is that one look at it, the way Rāma looks, until the knowledge stops being an idea and becomes a fact one lives by.