[453] 3.
[Māra:]
"You are young and beautiful,
and I too am young, in the prime of youth;
come, Khemā, let us delight ourselves
with fivefold instrumental music."
[The Therī Khemā:]
"By this putrid body, diseased and perishable,
I am distressed and ashamed;
craving for sensual pleasures (kāmataṇhā) has been uprooted.
Sensual pleasures are like spears and stakes;
the aggregates (khandhā) are their chopping-block.
What you call delight in sensual pleasures
is now non-delight for me.
Delight has been destroyed in every respect;
the mass of darkness has been torn apart.
Know thus, Evil One:
you are struck down, End-maker (Antaka).
Paying homage to the constellations,
tending the fire in the forest,
not knowing it as it really is (yathābhuccaṃ),
fools imagined that to be purity.
But I, paying homage to the Fully Awakened One (Sambuddha),
the supreme among men,
am fully released¹ from all sufferings (dukkha),
one who carries out the Teacher's teaching."
Khemā.
¹ Variant (Po., M. editions): pamuttā [for parimuttā].
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.