Finishing The Deeds [from 'proverbs 400' In Tamil] Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

162. Some men feign as good and ruin themselves their goals.
Some pretend as false but achieve their ends.
Both types mix cold water with the hot and drink.
The wise fulfill their intents in apt ways.

163. He who can't guard himself, makes friends into foes
with hurt words, scares to strike and takes to heels,
and acts in stealth is the kind of man
who breaks his eating vessel himself.

164. O, chief of the country thriving on the hills!
Speak right words to close friends and please them
to do things. If you hurry to finish a work,
it will spoil itself and bring troubles to you.

165. O, wench with curly, flourishing tresses
in five parts! The real eaters of the cakes
desert them in calm if holes are there. Get
the good from the bad despite their imbalance.

166. Cool one's mind with love and get the benefits.
Attempts to gain at the moment of thought
likens to milk a cow, shooting an arrow
at its tits, without letting the calf to feed.

167. O, wench with creeper like hip! If you set
the lazy to do an act his efforts will end
fruitless. If bulky dullard is strained to do,
it is like tilling the land with old bulls.

168. We put friction oil e'en if the wheel is ours.
People aren't strong as the axle pin. If cash
denied, they won't start the task for a decade.
Small may be the wage but no one does it free.

169. Unless you strike on the chisel placed on
a tender shoot, it won't cut. After you give
a work to a man, you must him and steer him
to complete the work.

170. O, peacock-like wench with the eyes of a deer!
Being dull, you give a job to the low-born
expecting that he'd do it. But it likens
a cat guarding the fish frying by the sun.

171. The young assign a job to the clear, wise men
and not to the old, who lack skills. Don't pursue
your friendship with those who don't have worldly sense
after good learning and living free of crimes.

172. Don't probe to know if people are friends or foes.
The wise must be vested with wealth earned
in good ways and they'll fulfill the giver's wants.
The wealth doesn't go waste as the work of the ox.

173. Things get stuck to all the hands which touch them.
All the foodstuffs accompany the good cooks
for to be used. If you choose well-learnt men
who know the ins and outs of the task, they'll leave.

174. O, wench with swinging ear rings and large eyes!
No one gets the blood of a goat by its nod.
Don't think to convince and relieve the men
placed by you, when he acts against your welfare.

175. They who catch the turtle, send it to bathe
in a pond, come back, and see it not there.
If one sends an impure man, to do a task
he will not do it but leave the place.

176. Gambling is easy to the man giving
company. It is a tough game to those
who know not the techniques. Knowing not
the tricks and lacking insight, lead to ruin.