Chapter 105: Poverty

Verse 1042
A beggar is walking along the street, hoping that some generous person will place food in his bowl. Behind him is the demon called poverty, whose sharp blades have severed the man’s smile and torn at his clothes. His penury has deprived him of every happiness.

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Weaver’s Wisdom

Verse 1041

Ask what is more miserable than being poor,
and the answer comes–only poverty pains like poverty.

Verse 1042

Poverty, the cruelest of demons, deprives a man
of every joy in this life, then takes them from the next life.

Verse 1043

Craving, another name for poverty, will obliterate at once
ancestral honor and dignity of speech.

Verse 1044

Privation produces unmindfulness, which gives birth
to improper words, even in men of proper birth.

Verse 1045

Poverty is that single sorrow which
gives rise to a multitude of miseries.

Verse 1046

Even when the poor perceive profoundly and speak skillfully,
their most meaningful words are always forgotten.

Verse 1047

He who is impoverished and estranged from virtue will be
regarded as a stranger even by his own mother.

Verse 1048

Will the wretched poverty that nearly
killed me yesterday come again today?

Verse 1049

Men may slumber even in the midst of fire,
but none can find repose in the midst of poverty.

Verse 1050

Lacking a morsel of food, a man may either
slay every desire or kill off his neighbor’s salt and rice broth.