[544] "What do you think, great king? Is Vāsabhā Khattiyā dear to you?"
"So it is, Mallikā; Vāsabhā Khattiyā is dear to me."
"What do you think, great king? Through change and alteration in Vāsabhā Khattiyā, would sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise in you?"
"Mallikā, through change and alteration in Vāsabhā Khattiyā, even my life might be altered — how then would sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair not arise in me?"
"It was with reference to this, great king, that the Blessed One — the one who knows, the one who sees, the Arahant, the Perfectly Enlightened One — spoke thus: 'Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are born from what is dear, arise from what is dear.'"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.