दुरीहालब्धलक्षाणि बहुवक्रोल्बणानि च । बालस्य यानि दुःखानि मुने तानि न कस्यचित् ॥ २३ ॥
durīhālabdhalakṣāṇi bahuvakrōlbaṇāni ca | bālasya yāni duḥkhāni munē tāni na kasyacit || 23 ||
Translation
The sorrows of a child, O sage, brought about by its bad wishes, a hundred thousand of them, many and twisted and sharp, are no one else's.
Word by word
- durīhā
- by its bad wishes
- labdha
- brought about
- lakṣāṇi
- a hundred thousand
- bahu
- many
- vakra
- and twisted
- ulbaṇāni
- and sharp
- ca
- and
- bālasya
- of a child
- yāni
- the
- duḥkhāni
- sorrows
- munē
- O sage
- tāni
- they
- na
- are no
- kasyacit
- one else's
Meaning
A child's griefs are counted in lakhs (lakṣa), hundreds of thousands; they are crooked and fierce, many of them from the tricks of others, the Dwivedi text adds; and they belong to the child alone: no one else feels them, and no one else can. That loneliness is itself a grief. The reader may remember how no adult quite understood their childhood sorrows, and listen more closely to a child.