Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 4/Verse 4

अर्जुन उवाच

अपरं भवतो जन्म परं जन्म विवस्वतः ।

कथमेतद्विजानीयां त्वमादौ प्रोक्तवानिति ॥४-४॥

arjuna uvāca
aparaṃ bhavato janma paraṃ janma vivasvataḥ ।
kathametadvijānīyāṃ tvamādau proktavāniti ॥4-4॥

Arjuna said, "You declared in the beginning, Your birth was later. Vivasvat's birth was earlier." How should I understand this?"


Word-for-word translations

arjunas (masculine, nominative, singular) = Arjuna 

uvāca (past tense, 3rd person, singular) = said

aparaṃ (neuter, nominative, singular) = later

bhavatas (masculine, genitive, singular) = your

janma (neuter, nominative, singular) = birth

paraṃ  (neuter, nominative, singular) = earlier

janma (neuter, nominative, singular) = birth

vivasvataḥ (masculine, genitive, singular) = of Vivasvat


katham (interrogative) (indeclinable) = how

etad (neuter, accusative, singular) = this 

vijānīyām (optative, 1st person, singular) = I should understand

tvam (pronoun, 2nd person, nominative, singular) = you 

ādau (masculine, locative, singular) = in the beginning 

proktavān (participle, masculine, nominative, singular) = one having declared 

iti (punctuation) (indeclinable) = (closed quotation marks)