ON IMPROPER FRIENDSHIP. The friendship of those who dissemble attachment, while they seek occasion to betray thee, is like an anvil (which supports the metal while the hammer beats it). Mischief should be feared from the deceitful, whose countenances are pleasant but their hearts filled with malice. Although they assume the courteous address of friends, the words of foes will soon be known for what they are. When the time arrives for enmity to become amily, let your countenance be friendly, but carefully recede from such friendship. NA'LADINANU'RU. சுற்றந்தழால் லயாவுமவருத்தமுமீன்றக்கானோவுய இன்னரிவயைரெமாபிறரெனனுஞ்சொல் தவல் மக்களாகற்பாலார பொறகல்ததுப்பெய்தபுகியுகிரவான புழுக்கல் முட்டிகைபோல முனியா துவைகலுங் நட்டாாெனப்படுவார நறுமல்ரத்தணகோதாய நடடாரக்குநட்டார ON THE UNION OF RELATIONS, As a mother forgets the pains and trouble she suffered during pregnancy and child-birth, when she sees her infant on her lap; so the distress a man suffers from poverty and other misfortune disappears on the sight of his relations enquiring for him. Those who, making no distinctions between dispositions or conditions, relations or strangers, actuated by their natural feelings alone, seek all who are in poverty or affliction and relieve their distress, will be regarded by every one as pre-eminently worthy. Than to eat on a golden dish rice, white as the claws of a tiger, mixed with sugar and milk, from the hand of an enemy, it is sweeter to take a mess of grass-reeds, without salt and in any kind of dish, in the house of a relation dear as life. Even those who have been pleasantly entertained by another, as frequently as a hammar strikes the anvil, will forsake him as the tongs do the iron on entering the fire; but those, who are truly worthy of being called friends, will adhere to him in distress, as the rod by which it is turned adhereth to the metal in the forge. O thou who art adorned by a coal and fragrant garland! when relations have partaken of the prosperity of their relations, if they partake not, also of their adversity until death, is there any thing they can do for them in the other world? நடபாராயதல் கருத்துணரந்து கற்றறிந்தாரடுகண்மையெஞ்ஞான்றுங் குருத்திறகரும்புதின்றறறேகுருத்திற யானையனையவரநணபொரீ இநாயைைணயார கேண்மை கெழீஇக்கொள்லவெண்டும்யானை பலநாளும் பக்கத்தாராயினுநெஞ்சிற கோட்டுப்பூப்பொல்மலாந்துபிறகூம்பாது LA ON REFLECTION IN CONTRACTED FRIENDSHIP. Friendship with the wise, whose intelligence divines one's thoughts, is like ́eating a sugar cane from the top (as its sweetness increases more and more); connection with persons without sweetness of disposition is like eating it from the opposite end (the flavor decreasing by degrees). Avoiding the friendship of those who resemble elephants, seek the friendship of those who resemble dogs; for an elephant will kill his driver, whom he hath known for a long time, but a dog will wag his tail while the spear. thrown at him is still in his body. Men cleave not to those, to whom their hearts cleave not within a short. space, though familiar with them for a long tine ; but will the friendship, interwoven with the idea of those intertwined with their hearts, be abandoned, though they are for a long time absent ? The preservation of friendship is when affection continues affection, like the flower of the branch, which, being blown, closeth not again: those who resemble the flowers of the pool, which, having blown, again close them petals, know neither affection, nor friendship. நடபிறபிழைபொறுத்தல் நல்லாரெனத்தான் னிவிரும்பிககொண்டாரை அ ல்லாரெனினும்டக்கிககொளல்வேண்டு மடித்திரைதந்திட்டவானகதிரமுத்தங் கடுவிசைநாவாய்கரையவலைக்குஞ் சோப்ப விடுதற்கரியாரியல்பிலரேனெஞ்சஞ் சுடுதற்குமூட்டியதீ இன்னாசெயினும் விடுதற் கரியாரைத் துன்னாரதுறததற்குவதோதுன்னருஞ்சீர விணகுத்து நீள்வரைவெற்பாகளைபவோ குற்றமுமேவினைக்குண நட்டபினாடித்திரிவேனேனடடான ON THE Endurance OF THE FAULTS of friends. When those we greatly love and esteem as virtuous, prove otherwise, this ought to be carefully concealed; for rice in the grain hath a husk, water foam, and flowers some unfragrant leaves. O Lord of the wave-resounding shore, where bright-rayed pearls are thrown up by the rolling billows and where float swift-sailing ships! if friends, from whom it is difficult to separate, possess not virtuous dispositions, they are a fire kindled to burn our hearts. Is it right utterly to abandon friends, whom it is so difficult to forsake, though guilty of evil deeds, O Lord of the renowned mountains, which covered by the long stems of bambus pierce the sky? will men cut off their hand because it has struck their eye? If, after contracting a firm Friendship with any one, I set myself to note his good and bad qualities, may I be cast into the hell, where the traitor, who discovereth the secrets of his friend, is punished, and may I be scoffed at by the whole world! The friendship of eminent men is eminently illustrious, and as productive of benefit as timely rain; but the friendship of the mean, even in the time of their prosperity, resembleth, O Lord of the country of clear waters! the failure of rain in due season, The enjoyment of the friendship of men of acute understandings is desirable as the joys of Heaven; but connection with unprofitable men, uninstructed in science and literature, is a very hell. Our intimacy with those, to whom we are not bound by the chain of friendship, O prince of the hills, the sides of which are covered by groves of tall sandal-trees! though it seemeth day by day to increase, may be dissolved as instantaneously as the fire catcheth the straw. If I stretch not forth my hand and deliver my whole soul without hesitation to my friend, when he is in distress, may I be cast into the hell, where the wretch is punished who hath violated the chuste wife of his friend, and may I be scoffed at throughout the far-famed earth. அறிவுடைமை வேம்பினியுைடகக்ஷியினும் வாழைதன் யினந்தீ தெனினுமியல்புடையாரடுகண்மை கடல்சாரந் துமின்னீர பிறக்கும்வலசாரந்தும் பாரஅரைப்புள் வணப்படுகடற் றணசோப்ப உணரவுணருமுணரவுடையானாப் றெரியததெரியுநதெரிவிலாதாரைப் Although the fruit of the plantain be ripened in the bitter leaves of the Vémbu, it will not lose its natural sweetness; thus, although they who are naturally good associate with the bad, their friendship for them will not corrupt their minds. NOTE. The tree here mentioued is that corruptly called Margosa (Amargozeira Port.); its botanical name, curiously formed from Sanscrit and Persian etymons, is "Nimba azadaracta". Its astringent leaves and bark are administered by the Indian, as the Peruvian bark by the European Physicians. The wood of old trees has a similar scent, and is used to adulterate sandal.. |