[448] Although a man with all this world contains of golden gear
Should her endow of womenkind his heart may count most dear,
Yet, if occasion serves, she will dishonour him withal--
Beware lest thou into the hands of such vile wretches fall.

A manly vigour he may show, from worldly taint be free,
Her maiden wooer may perhaps winsome and loving be,
In times of trouble and distress leave him she will and must,
I for my part in womankind can never put my trust.

Let him not trust because he thinks "she fancies me, I trow,"
Nor let him trust because her tears oft in his presence flow;
They court the man they hate as much as one that they adore,
Just as a ship that hugs alike the near and farther shore.

Trust not a litter strewn with leaves and branches long ago ,
Trust not thy whilom friend, perchance now grown into a foe,
Trust not a king because thou thinkst, "My comrade once was he,
Trust not a woman though she has borne children ten to thee.

Women are pleasure-seekers all and unrestrained in lust,
Transgressors of the moral law: in such put not your trust.
A wife may feign unbounded love before her husband's face;
Distrust her: women common are as any landing place.

Ready to mutilate or slay, from nothing do they shrink,
And after having cut his throat they e'en his blood would drink:
Let no man fix his love on them, creatures of passions base,
Licentious and as common as some Ganges landing place.

In speech they no distinction make betwixt the false and true,
As kine the choicest herbage pick, rich lovers they pursue.

One man they tempt with looks and smiles, another by their walk,
Some they attract by strange disguise , others by honeyed talk.

Dishonest, fierce and hard of heart, as sugar sweet their words,
Nothing there is they do not know to cheat their wedded lords.

Surely all womenfolk are vile, no limit bounds their shame,
Impassioned and audacious they, devouring as a flame.

Women are not so formed, this man to love and that abhor,
They court the man they hate as much as one that they adore,
E'en as a ship that hugs alike the near and farther shore.

[449] 'Tis not a case of love or hate with womenfolk we see,
It is for gold they hug a man, as parasites a tree.

A man may corpses burn or e'en dead flowers from temples rake ,
Be groom of horse or elephant, or care of oxen take,
Yet women after such low castes will run for money's sake.

One nobly born they leave if poor, as 'twere a low outcast,
To such an one, like carrion vile, if rich, they hie them fast."