विपुलोल्लासदायिन्या मदमन्मथपूर्वकम् । को विशेषो विकारिण्या मदिरायाः स्त्रियास्तथा ॥ ९ ॥
vipulōllāsadāyinyā madamanmathapūrvakam | kō viśēṣō vikāriṇyā madirāyāḥ striyāstathā || 9 ||
Translation
What difference is there between wine and a woman, both changeful, both giving great elation with intoxication and desire?
Word by word
- vipula
- great
- ullāsa
- elation
- dāyinyā
- giving
- mada
- with intoxication
- manmatha
- and desire
- pūrvakam
- together with
- kō
- (kaḥ) what
- viśēṣō
- (viśeṣaḥ) difference
- vikāriṇyā
- changeful
- madirāyāḥ
- between wine
- striyās
- (striyāḥ) and a woman
- tathā
- both
Meaning
Wine intoxicates and brings quarrels and falls; desire intoxicates and brings its own disorders. The commentary: both give many kinds of excitement and both are full of change; so, for one who seeks the highest good, both are to be avoided. The verse is in the voice of a renunciant. Its sense for any reader is that intoxication is the same whatever its source: the loss of clear seeing.