[471] 5.
Young was I, and clad in clean garments, when formerly I heard the Dhamma;
for me, being heedful, there was the breakthrough to the truth (saccābhisamaya).
Then I came to intense dissatisfaction with all sensual pleasures (kāma);
seeing peril in personal existence (sakkāya), I yearned only for renunciation (nekkhamma).
Leaving behind my circle of kin, my slaves and workfolk,
my prosperous villages and fields, delightful and gladdening,
I went forth, abandoning no small estate.
Having gone forth thus in faith, in the true Dhamma well proclaimed,
it would not be fitting for me — since I aspire to owning nothing (ākiñcañña) —
that I, having laid aside gold and silver, should come back to them again.
Silver or gold conduces not to peace, even for him [who owns it];
that is not seemly for an ascetic, that is not the noble treasure (ariyadhana).
It is a thing of greed and intoxication, of delusion, a bondage to the dust [of passion];
it is fraught with suspicion, with much travail; and there is in it no lasting stability.
Heedless on that account, men with defiled minds,
set against one another, make quarrels in abundance.
Slaughter, bondage, affliction, loss, sorrow and lamentation (soka-pariddava) —
much ruin is seen for those who have fallen upon sensual pleasures.
Why do you, my kinsfolk, like enemies, urge me on to sensual pleasures?
Know me as one gone forth, seeing peril in sensual pleasures.
Not by bullion and gold are the taints (āsava) exhausted;
sensual pleasures are enemies, murderers, foes, darts and bonds.
Why do you, my kinsfolk, like enemies, urge me on to sensual pleasures?
Know me as one gone forth, head shaven, wrapped in the patchwork robe (saṅghāṭi).
Almsfood received standing, gleanings, and a robe of refuse-rags (paṃsukūla) —
this indeed is what befits me, the support of the homeless state.
The great seers have spewed forth sensual pleasures, be they divine or human;
released in the place of security, they have attained unshakable happiness.
May I never come together with sensual pleasures, wherein no shelter is found;
sensual pleasures are enemies, murderers, painful (dukkha) as a mass of fire.
Impure is this [sensuality], fraught with peril, with vexation, with thorns;
and this greed is utterly treacherous, a great gateway of delusion.
An obstruction, and of terrifying form, are sensual pleasures, like a serpent's head,
in which fools take delight — blind ordinary worldlings (puthujjana).
For many folk in the world, attached to association with sensual pleasures,
have not found the end: they do not know the limit of birth (jāti) and of death (maraṇa).
Because of sensual pleasures, humans in great numbers enter
upon the path (magga) going to a bad destination (duggati), one that brings disease upon oneself.
Thus sensual pleasures are breeders of enemies, tormenting, defiling;
the bait of the world (lokāmisa), binding, they are the bondage of death.
Maddening, cajoling, sensual pleasures make the mind heedless —
a net cast by Māra for the defilement of beings.
Endless in danger are sensual pleasures, of much suffering, of great poison,
giving little gratification, makers of strife, drying up the bright side [of wholesome states].
Having forsaken such ruin, caused by sensual pleasures,
I shall not return to it, ever delighting in Nibbāna.
Doing battle with sensual pleasures, longing for the cool state,
I shall dwell heedful, delighting in the destruction of the fetters (saṃyojana).
Sorrowless, dust-free, secure, straight, endowed with the eight noble factors —
that path I follow, by which the great seers have crossed over.
See this one, standing in the Dhamma — Subhā, the smith's daughter:
having entered upon the imperturbable (aneja), she meditates at the foot of a tree.
Today is the eighth day since she went forth, faithful, resplendent in the true Dhamma;
trained by Uppalavaṇṇā, she bears the three true knowledges (tevijjā), one who has left death behind.
She is a freedwoman, free of debt, a bhikkhunī with faculties developed,
detached from all bonds (yoga), her task accomplished, free of taints.
Sakka, the lord of beings, together with the host of devas,
having approached her by supernormal power, pays homage to Subhā, the smith's daughter.
Subhā, the Smith's Daughter (Subhā Kammāradhītā).
The Book of the Twenties (Vīsatinipāta) is concluded.
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The Therīgāthā: the Book of the Thirties (Tiṃsanipāta).
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.