जडानां गतसंख्यानां कल्लोलानां विलासिनाम् । अनपेक्षितमर्यादो वारिधिर्नवयौवनम् ॥ २६ ॥
jaḍānāṁ gatasaṁkhyānāṁ kallōlānāṁ vilāsinām | anapēkṣitamaryādō vāridhirnavayauvanam || 26 ||
Translation
Fresh youth is an ocean that heeds no shore, with its countless dull waves at play.
Word by word
- jaḍānāṁ
- dull
- gata
- beyond
- saṁkhyānāṁ
- counting
- kallōlānāṁ
- with its waves
- vilāsinām
- at play
- anapēkṣita
- that heeds no
- maryādō
- (maryādaḥ) shore
- vāridhir
- (vāridhiḥ) an ocean
- nava
- fresh
- yauvanam
- youth
Meaning
The sea has a shore it keeps to; youth is an ocean that "heeds no limit" (anapekṣita-maryāda). Its waves are numberless and jaḍa, dull, the water that is also folly, as the poets' play has it; they are the endless fancies and plans of youth, as the commentary says, which come in no other age so thick. The verse names youth's boundlessness, which feels like freedom, as its danger: an ocean without a shore floods everything.