Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The only thing an outer show gets you is a few days of people saying, 'How proper and nice.'
And then it's forgotten.
Kabir names exactly what the outer show does buy — and how little it's worth: for a few days, people will say, 'what a noble bride has come.' That's it. A brief flutter of other people's approval, a few days of compliments — and then it fades and is forgotten. Kabir is putting his finger on something a child needs to understand early: so much of what we do for appearance is really just fishing for other people's praise, which is fleeting and shallow. It feels nice for a moment and then it's gone, leaving nothing behind. Living for compliments is like building on sand. There has to be something more lasting to build a life on — and Kabir names it next.
How long does the good feeling of a compliment last? What lasts longer than that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI