BG 1.45

यदि मामप्रतीकारमशस्त्रं शस्त्रपाणयः। धार्तराष्ट्रा रणे हन्युस्तन्मे क्षेमतरं भवेत्॥

yadi mām apratīkāram aśastraṃ śastra-pāṇayaḥ / dhārtarāṣṭrā raṇe hanyus tan me kṣemataraṃ bhavet

"Better to die with clean hands than to win with blood on them."

All public-domain translations

4 translations · all pre-1928 or released to public domain · sources

Swami Swarupananda, Srimad Bhagavad Gita (1909)

[4]
If the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapon in hand, were to slay me in battle unresisting and unarmed, that would be better for me.

William Quan Judge, The Bhagavad Gita (1890)

[6]
It would be better for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra, arms in hand, should slay me in the battle while I was weaponless and offered no resistance.

Sir Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885)

[7]
O, let the sons of Dhritarashtra come in arms! Yea, though they slay me, weaponless I'll stay.

K.T. Telang, Sacred Books of the East Vol. 8 (1882)

[9]
It would be better for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra, with arms in hand, were to kill me in the battle, unresisting and unarmed.