Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When we've put things off too long, we can end up shaky and full of regret, only then wishing we'd lived differently.
It's much kinder to ourselves to start living well while we still have the strength.
Kabir paints the ache of regret that comes too late: hands and head trembling, tears flowing, a person who never spoke the kind and true words now suddenly hoping to become good at the very end. It's a tender, sad picture — not meant to shame, but to spare the reader from living it. The whole point of showing the regret is so a child avoids it: don't leave the kind words unsaid, don't leave the loving and the remembering for 'someday.' The gift Kabir is really offering is a head start — the chance to start living well now, while there's strength and time, so that the trembling end, if it comes, is full of peace instead of 'I wish I had.'
Is there a kind word or a good habit you could start today, rather than leaving it for 'someday'?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI