Sanskrit
भवाप्ययौ हि भूतानां श्रुतौ विस्तरशो मया । त्वत्तः कमलपत्राक्ष माहात्म्यमपि चाव्ययम् ॥
bhavāpyayau hi bhūtānāṃ śrutau vistaraśo mayā tvattaḥ kamalapatrākṣa māhātmyam api cāvyayam
Translation
The production and destruction of beings have been heard by me in detail from Thee, O Lotus-eyed, and also Thy imperishable greatness.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A verse of pure stage-setting: Arjuna restates what he’s already been told — the arising and passing of beings, Krishna’s imperishable greatness — as the premise for the request he’s about to make. “Kamalapatrākṣa,” lotus-eyed, is a conventionally tender epithet, worth noticing precisely because of how it will read once the form he’s about to see arrives with a thousand suns’ blaze and mouths that grind armies to powder. The address is still to a friend; the content he’s asking for is not.