[2225]
Across the water while it lay unbroken he came by his own psychic power (iddhi); yet having come to intimacy with a woman, he sinks in the mighty ocean.
Women are beguilers (āvaṭṭanī), great in deceit (māyā), wreckers of the holy life (brahmacariya); knowing that they drag a man down, one should shun them from afar.
Insatiable, gentle of speech, hard to fill, they are like rivers; knowing that they drag a man down, one should shun them from afar.
Whatever man they consort with, whether out of desire or for wealth, him they swiftly burn up, even as fire (jātaveda) consumes the very place where it stands.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.