Metaphor, fitness must match the role
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शूरां साजती हतियारें । गांढएां हासतील पोरें ॥1॥
काय केली विटंबण । मोतीं नासिकावांचून ॥ध्रु.॥
पतिव्रते रूप साजे। सिंदळ काजळ लेतां लाजे ॥2॥
दासी पत्नी सुता । नव्हे सरी एक पिता ॥3॥
मान बुिद्धवंतां । थोर न मनिती पिता ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे तरी । आंत शुद्ध दंडे वरी ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Weapons befit the brave; in the hands of a coward, even children laugh. What humiliation it is for pearls to be strung without a proper nose-ring. Beauty suits a devoted wife; even one who is fallen is ashamed to adorn herself. A maidservant, a wife, and a daughter cannot share equal standing with a father. Honor belongs to the wise; the thoughtless do not deserve it. Says Tuka, this is so only when one is pure within, even if punished outwardly.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Weapons suit the brave; in a coward's hands, even children laugh. What a disgrace it is to string pearls without the nose for them. Beauty becomes a faithful wife; a loose woman is ashamed even to wear the eye-paint. A maidservant, a wife, a daughter, none of them is equal to the one father. Honor belongs to the wise; the thoughtless do not count the great as great. Tuka says: it holds only when one is pure within, even if punished outside.
What it means
Tukaram piles up images to make one point: a thing is fitting only when the inner reality matches the outer place. Weapons in a coward's hand draw laughter; ornaments worn without the standing to wear them are a disgrace; eye-paint shames the woman who has no faithfulness behind it. Standing cannot be borrowed: a servant or daughter does not equal the father, and honor falls only to the wise, who alone can recognize greatness. The closing line gives the test: all of this depends on being pure within, and that purity holds even when the world punishes you outwardly.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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