Saturday, September 24, 2022
The Simple Life
An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry: Vidyākara's "Subhāṣitaratnakoṣa" translated by Daniel H.H. Ingalls (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965 = Harvard Oriental Series, 44), p. 425 (number 1624):
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The sky for garment, my hollow hand for cup,On "my hollow hand for cup" cf. Diogenes Laertius 6.2.37 (on Diogenes the Cynic; tr. R.D. Hicks):
deer for my companions, meditation for my sleep,
the earth for couch and roots for food:—
When will this, my fondest heart's desire, be fulfilled
to set the crown upon my happiness?
[ŚILHAṆA COLLECTION]
One day, observing a child drinking out of his hands, he cast away the cup from his wallet with the words, "A child has beaten me in plainness of living."
θεασάμενός ποτε παιδίον ταῖς χερσὶ πῖνον ἐξέρριψε τῆς πήρας τὴν κοτύλην, εἰπών, "παιδίον με νενίκηκεν εὐτελείᾳ."
