Source (Verse 120)
कैसें नगर करौ कुटवारी
मांसु पसारि गीध रखवारी ॥ टेक ॥
बैल बियाइ गाइ भई बांझ । बछरहिं दूहै तीनिउँ सांझ ॥ १ ॥
मूसा खेवट नाव बिलइया । सोवै दादुर सर्प पहरिया ॥ २ ॥
नित उठि स्यार सिंघ सौं जूझै । कहै कबीर कोई बिरला बूझै ॥ ३॥
How do you,
Ask the chief of police,
Patrol a city
Where the butcher shops Are guarded by vultures;
Where bulls get pregnant, Cows are barren,
And calves give milk Three times a day;
Where mice are boatmen And tomcats the boats They row;
Where frogs keep snakes As watchdogs,
And jackals Go after lions?
Does anyone know What I’m talking about? Says Kabir.Translation (Source)
Hess, who has translated this poem, offers the following interpretation: The commentators have provided a meaning for nearly every word in the poem, but we shall approach it from a particular standpoint, as a statement about the problem of the mind—mana.... [The poem] states, in its oblique way, that the mind cannot solve the problem since the mind is the problem. It is like making a vulture the watchman over a meat-strewn city. It is like appointing a snake as protector of frogs. In such a town can we even talk of a sheriff to round up criminals? Who could be sheriff? Kabir shoots the question at us, following it with a rapid-fire series of impossible images, then bringing us up short, before we have had a chance to note how many times our heads have whirled, with a sudden conclusion: “Kabir says, rare listeners / hear the song right.” (The Bijak of Kabir, pp. 152–54)
कैसें नगर करौ कुटवारी
मांसु पसारि गीध रखवारी ॥ टेक ॥
बैल बियाइ गाइ भई बांझ । बछरहिं दूहै तीनिउँ सांझ ॥ १ ॥
मूसा खेवट नाव बिलइया । सोवै दादुर सर्प पहरिया ॥ २ ॥
नित उठि स्यार सिंघ सौं जूझै । कहै कबीर कोई बिरला बूझै ॥ ३॥
How do you,
Ask the chief of police,
Patrol a city
Where the butcher shops Are guarded by vultures;
Where bulls get pregnant, Cows are barren,
And calves give milk Three times a day;
Where mice are boatmen And tomcats the boats They row;
Where frogs keep snakes As watchdogs,
And jackals Go after lions?
Does anyone know What I’m talking about? Says Kabir.Translation (Source)
Hess, who has translated this poem, offers the following interpretation: The commentators have provided a meaning for nearly every word in the poem, but we shall approach it from a particular standpoint, as a statement about the problem of the mind—mana.... [The poem] states, in its oblique way, that the mind cannot solve the problem since the mind is the problem. It is like making a vulture the watchman over a meat-strewn city. It is like appointing a snake as protector of frogs. In such a town can we even talk of a sheriff to round up criminals? Who could be sheriff? Kabir shoots the question at us, following it with a rapid-fire series of impossible images, then bringing us up short, before we have had a chance to note how many times our heads have whirled, with a sudden conclusion: “Kabir says, rare listeners / hear the song right.” (The Bijak of Kabir, pp. 152–54)
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