ਜਿਉ ਮਧੁ ਮਾਖੀ ਸੰਚੈ ਅਪਾਰ ॥
ji-o maDh maakhee sanchai apaar.
The bee stores up loads of honey;
ਮਧੁ ਲੀਨੋ ਮੁਖਿ ਦੀਨੀ ਛਾਰੁ ॥
maDh leeno mukh deenee chhaar.
then someone comes and takes the honey, and throws dust in its mouth.
ਗਊ ਬਾਛ ਕਉ ਸੰਚੈ ਖੀਰੁ ॥
ga-oo baachh ka-o sanchai kheer.
The cow stores up loads of milk;
ਗਲਾ ਬਾਂਧਿ ਦੁਹਿ ਲੇਇ ਅਹੀਰੁ ॥੨॥
galaa baaNDh duhi lay-ay aheer. ||2||
then the milkman comes and ties it by its neck and milks it. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A bee works and works to gather honey, and then someone comes and takes it all away.
A cow fills up with milk, and the milk is drawn off for someone else. What you pile up is not as safely yours as it feels.
What you store up is more borrowed than owned.
Two working animals, the bee heavy with honey and the cow full of milk, show how what we gather can be gathered from us. Everyday farm life becomes a gentle mirror: the pile we guard so carefully was never as securely ours as it felt.
A Question to Sit With
What is something you worked hard to get that turned out not to matter as much as you thought?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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