Sunday, March 27, 2016

How to hold your liquor

First, apologies are in order. I have been consistently placing the anthology Subhaashitaavali, compiled by the Kashmiri scholar Vallabhadeva, in the 10th century (see this post or this, for example). However, the current academic consensus dates it to the 15th century CE.

With that out of the way, let's get straight to today's quote. Chapter 17 of Subhaashitaavali is entitled पानकेलिः (pAnakeliH) or "drunken revelry", and the following is an excerpt from that chapter.

Devanagari text:
अन्ययान्यवनितागतचित्तं चित्तनाथमभिशङ्कितवत्या|
पीतभूरिसुरयापि न मेदे निर्वृतिर्हि मनसो मदहेतुः||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

anyayAnyavanitAgatacittaM cittanAthamabhizaGkitavatyA|
pItabhUrisurayApi na mede nirvRtirhi manaso madahetuH||
 Anonymous

Loose translation: So paranoid was she about the lord of her heart giving his own heart to another woman that she failed to get drunk, no matter how much wine she guzzled – the mind needs to be relaxed for intoxication to kick in.

SourceSubhaashitaavali Verse 2010.

Notes: Personally, I have no idea whether being a jealous lover can help you drink like a fish without getting drunk .... for all the reasons you can imagine.

On a more serious note, here's a scholarly translation of the same couplet by A.N.D. Haksar:

Though she drank much wine,
she did not get drunk
out of concern her lover
may turn to another woman.
Inebriation requires
the mind to be relaxed.

My own (Sanskrit) prosification: 
चित्तनाथम् न्यवनितागतचित्तम् भिशङ्कितवत्या अन्यया पीतभूरिसुरया पि न मेदेमनसो निर्वृतिर्हि मदहेतुः|

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