kiṁ kāvyena kaves tasya kiṁ kāṇḍena dhanuṣmataḥ

kiṁ kāvyena kaves tasya kiṁ kāṇḍena dhanuṣmataḥ |
parasya hṛdaye lagnaṁ na ghūrṇayati yac chiraḥ ||
(Nala-campū: 1.5; cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 3.1.195)

“What good is a poet’s poetry or a bowman’s arrow which strikes the heart of another but do not cause the head [of the other] to spin?”

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