“As haply on the boundless main · Meet drifting logs and part again”
Ramayana“As haply on the boundless main / Meet drifting logs and part again” is a simile for the temporary nature of human bonds: like pieces of driftwood brought together and then parted by the sea, people and the things they cherish cannot remain together indefinitely.
The Image of Meeting and Parting
The image turns chance contact on a vast ocean into a compact picture of attachment and separation. The drifting logs meet, but their encounter does not promise permanence; their eventual parting is built into the comparison. Its movement—from meeting to separation—makes impermanence tangible rather than abstract.
Meaning in Context
The surrounding lines apply the image to “wives and children, friends and gold,” which are held only “for a little time.” They warn against assuming that life’s changes can be escaped while the seasons seem gentle, and describe separation as governed by “resistless laws of fate.” The image therefore encompasses both personal relationships and possessions, placing their loss within the common condition of a changing world.
The Expression’s Significance
The simile does not single out one particular loss or explain the circumstances of any separation. Instead, it gives a general pattern: beings and treasured things may share a moment of proximity, yet part again. Its sea-borne driftwood makes that pattern memorable while the surrounding lines state its consequence plainly: no one can avoid the common lot.
