[370] 1.
Now the trees are aglow like embers, venerable sir:
seeking fruit, they have cast off their old foliage;
they shine as though they were blazing flames.
Great Hero, the season partakes of delights.
The trees are in blossom, delighting the mind,
wafting fragrance all around to every quarter;
they have shed their leaves and long for fruit —
it is time, O Hero, to set forth from here.
Neither too cold is it, nor yet too hot;
the season is pleasant, fit for the road, venerable sir.
Let the Sākiyas and the Koḷiyas behold you,
facing westward, crossing the river Rohiṇī.
In hope the field is ploughed;
in hope the seed is sown;
in hope merchants go down to the sea,
bringers-home of wealth.
The hope in which I stand —
may that hope of mine now ripen!
Again and again they sow the seed;
again and again the deva-king sends down rain;
again and again the farmers plough the field;
again and again grain comes to the realm.
Again and again beggars wander forth;
again and again the lords of giving give;
again and again, having given, the lords of giving
again and again attain their place in heaven (sagga).
Truly a wise man of vast wisdom
purifies seven generations of the family wherein he is born.
I think that you, deva above devas, are able [to purify even beyond that],
for by you was begotten the Sage whose name is true.
Suddhodana is the name of the Great Seer's (mahesi) father,
and the Buddha's mother was Queen Māyā,
who, having carried the Bodhisatta in her womb,
rejoices in the threefold heaven (tidiva) upon the breaking up of the body.
That Gotamī, having died, having passed away from here,
is furnished with divine sensual pleasures;
she rejoices amid the five strands of sensual pleasure (kāmaguṇa),
surrounded by those companies of devas.
I am the son of the Buddha — of him who bears what none else can bear,
the Aṅgīrasa, the peerless, the steadfast one (tādī).
You, O Sakya, are the father of my father:
O Gotama, in the Dhamma you are my grandsire.
Kāḷudāyī Thera.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.