II. Porutpaal

II.7 Kudi-iyal


Athikaaram 101 Nandriyil Selvam

Kural 1001

Vaiththaanvaai saandra perumporul a-h-thunnaan
Seththtaan seyakkidanthathu il.




English translation:

II. WEALTH

II.7. Chapter on "how to be a good citizen"

Chapter. 101 Wealth without Benefaction


Kural 1001

Who fills his house with ample store, enjoying none,
Is dead. Nought with the useless heap is done.
He who does not enjoy the immense riches he has heaped up in his house, is (to be reckoned as) dead, (for) there is nothing achieved (by him).

Kural - 1002
Who giving nought, opines from wealth all blessing springs,
Degraded birth that doting miser's folly brings.
He who knows that wealth yields every pleasure and yet is so blind as to lead miserly life will be born a demon.

Kural - 1003
Who lust to heap up wealth, but glory hold not dear,
It burthens earth when on the stage of being they appear.
A burden to the earth are men bent on the acquisition of riches and not (true) fame.

Kural - 1004
Whom no one loves, when he shall pass away,
What doth he look to leave behind, I pray?
What will the miser who is not liked (by any one) regard as his own (in the world to come) ?

Kural - 1005
Amid accumulated millions they are poor,
Who nothing give and nought enjoy of all they store.
Those who neither give (to others) nor enjoy (their property) are (truly) destitute, though possessing immense riches.

Kural - 1006
Their ample wealth is misery to men of churlish heart,
Who nought themselves enjoy, and nought to worthy men impart.
He who enjoys not (his riches) nor relieves the wants of the worthy is a disease to his wealth.

Kural - 1007
Like woman fair in lonelihood who aged grows,
Is wealth of him on needy men who nought bestows.
The wealth of him who never bestows anything on the destitute is like a woman of beauty growing old without a husband.

Kural - 1008
When he whom no man loves exults in great prosperity,
'Tis as when fruits in midmost of the town some poisonous tree.
The wealth of him who is disliked (by all) is like the fruit-bearing of the etty tree in the midst of a town.

Kural - 1009
Who love abandon, self-afflict, and virtue's way forsake
To heap up glittering wealth, their hoards shall others take.
Strangers will inherit the riches that have been acquired without regard for friendship, comfort and charity.

Kural - 1010
'Tis as when rain cloud in the heaven grows day,
When generous wealthy man endures brief poverty.
The short-lived poverty of those who are noble and rich is like the clouds becoming poor (for a while).