[2062]
"Having seen the fruit of misconduct (duccarita), O king,
and likewise the great result (mahāvipāka) of what is well practised (suciṇṇa),
I shall restrain myself alone;
I would not wish for son and cattle, or for wealth.
The life of mortals here
is just these ten decades of years;
even before reaching that limit,
it withers like a reed cut down.
What delight is there in that, what play,
what pleasure, what quest for wealth?
What have I to do with sons and wives?
O king, I am freed from the bond.
And this I know full well:
Death (maccu) is not heedless of me.
For one overtaken by the Ender (antaka),
what pleasure, what quest for wealth?
The lowest birth for men, O lord of the people,
is the caṇḍāla womb, meanest of the two-footed;
through our own most evil deeds
we dwelt of old in a caṇḍāla woman's womb.
Caṇḍālas we were among the Avantis,
deer beside the Nerañjarā,
ospreys on the bank of the Rammadā —
and those same today are brahmin and khattiya."
[Edition apparatus printed with this passage: (1) "haññantu bho bherimudiṅgasaṅkhe" is also read; the Burmese edition reads "āhaññantu bherimudiṅgasaṅkhe" (keyed to a line preceding this excerpt); (2) the Burmese edition reads "assamaṃ taṃ" (likewise keyed to a preceding line); (3) for "puttapasuṃ," the Sinhalese and European editions read "puttaṃ."]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.