Verse 18

¹⁸His jests, lit with a wide and lovely smile: Partha! Arjuna! friend! joy of the Kurus! Those spoken words, god among men, touching the heart, roll my heart over now that I remember Madhava. ¹⁹In lying down and sitting and walking and boasting and eating and the rest, being alike in age, when I said 'you speak truly' and cheated him — as a friend does a friend, as a father a son, the great one bore all my offence, in his greatness, the offence of a fool. ²⁰So I, lord of kings, bereft of the best of Persons, of that dear friend and well-wisher, am empty of heart. On the road, dear one, guarding the wide-strider's household, I was beaten by worthless cowherds as a woman is.

²¹That is the same bow, those the same arrows, that the same chariot, those the same horses; I am the same warrior before whom kings bowed. In a moment all of it became unreal and empty of the Lord, like an offering poured on ashes, like a conjurer's gains, or seed sown in barren ground.