ON LUST AND WINE AND GAMBLING

Will one in his free moments watch some one else who is drunk and realize what happens to one when under the mischief of the potion?

Those who drink in secret soon become the laughing stock of the locality, for the effects of the indulgence cannot for long remain unknown.

Gambling, even if you win, is a thing to be avoided. The winning is like the fish swallowing the hook.

Pon now used to denote gold was originally a word to denote metal in general and in this couplet it refers to the iron hook used in fishing.

Even when losing, gambling is sweet and holds the victim in its grip, resembling in this the attachment to life in spite of excruciating physical agony, which would be relieved by death. The sick victim avoids death and holds on to life. The point is more emphatically enforced by the couplet reversing the comparison: attachment to life is like the grip that the game gets on its victim.

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