Poem 544

In plain words

When the cuckoo sings its song, all the crows try to peck at it: have you not seen it? Seeing good people, to feel envy is only natural to the evil-minded of the world, is it not! One's own karma, once it is a binding decree, comes circling round; into whatever state it may put you, there is no escape from living it out as it puts you. Feet uppermost, ‘Hang there without dying,’ head downward: did anyone at all tie them so to that tree? It is only the karma that came to the bats, O man!