The Song Of Life: 17. A Man As Casts Away Clothes Old Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

On giving up the garments old
As people do put on the new,
So does the soul take on in lieu
A new body in place of old! || 2.22 ||

Here is the transliteration with the meanings of Sanskrit words:

vāsāmsi jīrņāni yathā vihāyanavāni gŗhņāti narah aparāņi |
tathā sharīrāņi vihāya jīrņānianyāni samyāti navāni dehī ||

vāsāmsi: garments, clothes; jīrņāni: old, warn out; yathā:as, just as; vihāya: shedding, casting aside; navāni: the new, fresh; gŗhņāti: seizes, takes on, accepts; narah: man; aparāņi: others; tathā: so, in the same way; sharīrāņi: bodies; vihāya: casting aside; jīrņāni: old; anyāni: others; samyāti: meets with, encounters, takes on; navāni: anew; dehī: the body-dweller (soul) , one bearing a body.

This is one of the oft quoted verses. Let us see one more interpretation:

Garments worn out as men do cast
Aside, to take on new to last,
So also, dresst with fleshy mould,
Soul taketh a new for the old.

This is how Edwyn Arnold translated it:

Nay, but as when one layeth
His worn-out robes away,
And taking new ones, sayeth,
"These will I wear to-day! "
So putteth by the spirit
Lightly its garb of flesh,
And passeth to inherit
A residence afresh.