The Fate of Mind and Life, pp. 439-440

Opening Remarks
Now the queen describes the fate of mind and life upon earth to bring home her point with a greater force.

Mind suffers
Mind suffers lamed by the world’s disharmony
And the unloveliness of human things.

Mind suffers due to the disharmonies of the world and the lack of love among human beings.

Life is a marvel missed
A treasure misspent or cheaply, fruitlessly sold
In the bazaar of a blind destiny,
A gift of priceless value from Time’s gods
Lost or mislaid in an uncaring world,
Life is a marvel missed, an art gone wry;
A seeker in a dark and obscure place,
An ill-armed warrior facing dreadful odds,
An imperfect worker given a baffling task,
An ignorant judge of problems Ignorance made,
Its heavenward flights reach closed and keyless gates,
Its glorious outbursts peter out in mire.

Life is a treasure misspent, or cheaply and fruitlessly sold in the bazaar of blind destiny. A priceless gift of the gods it is lost or mislaid in an uncaring world. Life is a marvel missed, an art gone dry. She is a seeker in a dark and obscure place or an ill-armed warrior facing dreadful odds, an imperfect worker given baffling task. She has lost the wisdom and hence is an ignorant judge of the problems born out of ignorance. Its heavenward flights are stopped at closed and keyless gates. Its glorious outburts stop quickly and too abruptly.

A curse is laid
On Nature’s gifts to man a curse was laid:
All walks inarmed by its own opposites,
Error is the comrade of our mortal thought
And falsehood lurks in the deep bosom of truth,
Sin poisons with its vivid flowers of joy
Or leaves a red scar burnt across the soul;
Virtue is a grey bondage and a gaol.

On every gift of Nature a curse is laid. All walks hand in hand with its opposites. Error is the comrade of our mortal thought and falsehood lurks in the deep bosom of truth. Sin poisons all with vivid flowers of joy or leaves a red scar across the soul. Virtue itself is a grey bondage and a jail.

Snare at every step
At every step is laid for us a snare.

At every step a snare is laid for man.

Our roots in nescience
Alien to reason and the spirit’s light,
Our fount of action from a darkness wells;
In ignorance and nescience are our roots.

Unknown and not understood by reason our very fount of action wells from darkness. Our very roots are in ignorance nescience.

Closing Remarks
Thus is our life caught up in an ambiguous net from which it finds no issue and no door of escape.