If one finds amendment too difficult and pursues complacent comfort, his karmic sins will grow graver with each passing day. Even knowing lust brings no true satisfaction, he will not abandon it. When urged to repent without delay in the present year, he defers the task to the year ahead.
Those given to lust suffer countless reverses yet refuse to repent, their cravings undimmed. Not until the coffin‑lid closes upon them for eternity shall their misdeeds cease.
People obsessed with carnal lust will not turn back even amid repeated adversities. So long as their physical life remains, they persist in sensual craving. They desist only when death encloses them in the coffin. The coffin‑lid closing upon them for eternity signifies final death, with no return to mortal life.
Evil names pass down through eternity, becoming tales told across all ages.
Evil names are disreputable reputations. Tales told are material for gossip. Infamy spreads far and wide, enduring through millennia.
Wicked deeds cannot be concealed, spreading far and wide as infamous anecdotes.
Wicked deeds are acts of lechery and vice. “Cannot be concealed” means “cannot be hidden”. People in all quarters speak of these shameful misdeeds, recounting them as scandalous tales.
If one’s sons bear no likeness to the virtuous, it would be better to have no posterity at all.
It refers to a son devoid of his father’s virtues, given over to lust and debauchery, who brings disgrace upon the ancestral name and unending affliction to his lineage. It would be better to have no such child, for one would feel a sense of relief instead.
Rivers may shift their courses, yet inborn nature is hard to transform.