Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
He gathers horses, elephants, chariots, and calls them all his own.
But when he sets out on the long road, not one of them takes a single step with him.
The memento-mori reaches its peak with the trappings of power — horses, elephants, chariots, the ancient marks of a great man — and the claim of ownership: "claims them as his own." The puncture is total: "they will not go even one step with him." The repetition across P0, P2, P4 (mansions, people, possessions) is deliberate, a drumbeat clearing the field of every false companion for the road, so that P5 can name the true one.
What do you call 'mine' most fiercely? What would it feel like to hold it a little more lightly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI