[464]
Having good friends (kalyāṇamittatā) has been praised by the Sage (muni)
with reference to the world:
associating with good friends,
even a fool would become wise.
Good persons (sappurisa) should be associated with,
for thus indeed does wisdom (paññā) grow for those who associate with them;
whoever he may be — a khattiya or any other —
associating with good persons
would free himself from all sufferings (dukkha).
And he would understand suffering,
and the origin (samudaya) of suffering,
cessation (nirodha) and the eightfold path (magga),
and the four noble truths (ariyasacca).
Womanhood has been declared to be suffering
by the charioteer of persons to be tamed (purisadammasārathi);
for even life with a co-wife is suffering.
Some, having given birth but once,
cut their throats;
delicate women take poison;
caught in the midst of [a birth] that kills,
both alike undergo calamities.
Near to my delivery, going along,
I saw my husband dead;
having given birth upon the road,
I had not yet reached my own house.
Two sons dead, and a husband
dead upon the road, for wretched me;
and mother and father and brother
were burned upon a single pyre.
When [your] family had perished, O wretched one,
suffering without measure have you undergone;
and your tears indeed have flowed
for many thousands of births (jāti).
I saw you in the midst of the charnel ground,
and the flesh of [your] sons devoured.
With family slain, blamed by all,
with husband dead, I attained the Deathless (amata).
I have developed this path,
the noble eightfold [path] leading to the Deathless;
Nibbāna too has been realized:
I have looked into the mirror of the Dhamma (dhammādāsa).
I am one with the dart (salla) cut out,
the burden laid down; done is what had to be done.
The therī Kisāgotamī,
with mind (citta) fully liberated, spoke this.
Kisāgotamī.
The Book of the Elevens (ekādasakanipāta) is concluded.
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The Therīgāthā: the Book of the Twelves (dvādasakanipāta)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.