[2370] In Bārāṇasī¹ there was a king of the Kāsis, one who made the realm prosper;
surrounded by friends and ministers, he went out to the Migājina² [park].
There he saw a brahmin (brāhmaṇa) — white, mottled, afflicted with leprosy (kilāsa),
like a blighted koviḷāra tree, emaciated, the veins standing out over his body.
Seeing that man fallen into hardship, come to a most piteous state,
the king, startled, said: "Which of the yakkhas are you?
Your hands and feet are white, and whiter still your head;
your body is blotched in hue, and you are covered over with leprous patches.
Your back, sunken and jutting, is like a strung row of spindle-whorls;
your limbs are black at the joints — I see no other such as this.
With feet chafed raw, thirsty, emaciated, the veins standing out over you,
hungry, with the look of one never sated — where do you come from, and where are you going?
Ill to look upon and misshapen are you, of wretched complexion, fearful to behold —
even the mother who bore you would not wish to see you.
What deed (kamma) did you do in the past? What inviolable one did you slay?
What villainy did you commit, that you have come to this suffering (dukkha)?"
Variant readings (footnotes of the Siam Raṭṭha edition): ¹ Sī., Yu.: "Bārāṇassaṃ." ² Sī.: "Migājiraṃ"; Yu.: "Migācīraṃ."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.