Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Where are the houses, the gates, the inns and the palaces — those beautiful way-stations for travelers?
Where are the lovely women resting on their beds, whose beauty kept sleep away?
Where are the betel leaves, and their sellers, and the women of the court? Vanished — gone like shadows.
The inventory continues from the military to the civic and the intimate: architecture, hospitality, luxury, desire — the whole sensory city. The closing simile does the hymn's work in three words: gone like shadows. A shadow is perfectly visible and weighs nothing; it was never a thing, only the shape light made for a while. So too the city's glitter: real to the eye, empty in the hand. This is Sach taught by demolition — the difference between what appears and what endures, shown rather than argued.
What around you is solid, and what is really just a shadow that looks solid?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI