Not Being Indolent (By St. Thiruvalluvar) Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

601. The unfailing lamp of the family burns itself out
When sluggish darkness dims its light.
602. To uphold the dignity of your family
Make efforts without indolence.
603. His household will perish before himself
If an ignorant fosters in him indolence destroyable.
604. Their families decay and crimes increase, if they
sink in sloth and noble things don't strive to do.
605. Delay, oblivion, sloth and sleep are the four of the yacht
Which bears the people who are left to rot.
606. Even if the voluntary, royal assets the idlers gain
The great benefits from them they don’t attain.
607. The lazy who make no noble efforts will be the butts
of their rebuking and reproaching friends.
608. When lethargy settles down in a noble born
It will make him a slave to his foes.
609. When the sway of languor on a man leaves
The reproach to his manliness and his family will vanish.
610. An alert king will obtain all the space en masse
Which the mighty foot of the God measured!