2.10 As if smiling Sanjaya speaks
तमुवाच हृषीकेशः प्रहसन्निव भारत
सेनयोरुभयोर्मध्ये विषीदन्तमिदं वचः
tam-uvācha hṛiṣhīkeśhaḥ prahasanniva bhārata
senayorubhayor-madhye viṣhīdantam-idaṁ vachaḥ
And Krishna, as if smiling, said this to him — grieving there between the two armies.
Explanation
As if smiling.
prahasann iva — two words, and they change the register of everything that follows.
Krishna is about to say hard things, and the text tells you the face they are said with. The iva — as if — keeps it from being a smirk. It is affection, at the worst possible moment.
Going further
Word by word
- tam
- to him
- uvācha
- said
- hṛiṣhīkeśhaḥ
- Shree Krishna, the master of mind and senses
- prahasan
- smilingly
- iva
- as if
- bhārata
- Dhritarashtra, descendant of Bharat
- senayoḥ
- of the armies
- ubhayoḥ
- of both
- madhye
- in the midst of
- viṣhīdantam
- to the grief-stricken
- idam
- this
- vachaḥ
- words
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Prahasann iva — as if smiling.
Two words, and they change the register of everything that follows. Krishna is about to spend seventeen chapters on the hardest questions a person can ask, and he begins amused. Not mocking: the Sanskrit is gentler than that. Something closer to the look of someone who can see the whole shape of a problem you are still inside.