[691] Then that brahmin of great wealth (brāhmaṇamahāsāla), having mastered these verses in the presence of the Blessed One, recited them in the assembly hall when the great crowd of people had gathered and his sons were seated there:
"Those at whose birth I rejoiced
and whose prosperity I desired,
having conspired with their wives,
now revile me as dogs bay at a hog.
Wicked and vile indeed, it seems,
they say to me, 'Dad! Dad!' —
demons (rakkhasā) in the guise of sons,
they forsake me in my old age.
As a horse grown old and useless
is led away from its fodder,
so the aged father of fools
begs for alms at the houses of others.
Better indeed, it seems, is my staff
than sons who are disobedient:
it wards off even a fierce ox,
and a fierce dog as well;
in the dark it goes before me,
in the deep it finds a footing;
by the power of the staff,
having stumbled, one stands firm again."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.