प्रत्यहं याति कटुतामेषा संसारसंस्थितिः । कालपाकवशाल्लोला रसा निम्बलता यथा ॥ २ ॥
pratyahaṁ yāti kaṭutāmēṣā saṁsārasaṁsthitiḥ | kālapākavaśāllōlā rasā nimbalatā yathā || 2 ||
Translation
Day by day this state of the world grows more bitter, as a swaying neem shoot, full of sap, does by the ripening of time.
Word by word
- pratyahaṁ
- day by day
- yāti
- grows
- kaṭutām
- more bitter
- ēṣā
- this
- saṁsāra
- of the world
- saṁsthitiḥ
- state
- kāla
- of time
- pāka
- of the ripening
- vaśāl
- (vaśāt) by the force
- lōlā
- swaying
- rasā
- full of sap
- nimba
- neem
- latā
- a shoot
- yathā
- as
Meaning
The neem (nimba) is the type of bitterness in Indian speech, and the older the plant the more bitter it is: the commentary says bitter, more bitter, most bitter, as the years go by. Rāma finds the world (saṃsāra-saṃsthiti, the way the world is set up) doing the same to him. This is not a complaint that life has turned against him; it is a report of taste. What once seemed sweet now shows its true flavour, because time (kāla-pāka, the ripening of time) brings out what was in it from the start. The young neem shoot is soft and green and full of sap, and already a neem. The reader may remember a pleasure that grew less sweet each time it was repeated, and ask whether that was the pleasure failing or their own taste becoming true.