तरङ्गं प्रतिबिम्बेन्दुं तडित्पुञ्जं नभोम्बुजम् । ग्रहीतुमास्थां बध्नामि न त्वायुषि हतस्थितौ ॥ ७ ॥
taraṅgaṁ pratibimbēnduṁ taḍitpuñjaṁ nabhōmbujam | grahītumāsthāṁ badhnāmi na tvāyuṣi hatasthitau || 7 ||
Translation
I could set my trust in grasping a wave, the moon reflected in water, a mass of lightning, or a lotus in the sky; but not in life, whose stability is destroyed.
Word by word
- taraṅgaṁ
- a wave
- pratibimba
- reflected
- induṁ
- the moon
- taḍit
- of lightning
- puñjaṁ
- a mass
- nabhō
- (nabhaḥ) in the sky
- ambujam
- a lotus
- grahītum
- in grasping
- āsthāṁ
- trust
- badhnāmi
- I could set
- na
- not
- tu
- but
- āyuṣi
- in life
- hata
- is destroyed
- sthitau
- whose stability
Meaning
Rāma returns to impossible things, now in the first person. A wave slips through the hand; the reflected moon is not there to be held; lightning is gone before one turns; the sky-lotus is the stock example of what does not exist at all. "I could trust," he says, "in grasping these, but not in life." The commentary says it plainly: grasping them is impossible, yet let the impossible happen; still I cannot trust in life. Life is "one whose stability is struck down" (hatasthiti): it has no steadiness at all to lean on. The reader is asked where their trust is actually placed.