[2416] Adorned women, their skin like the fairest lotus,
resplendent, sweet-voiced as swans — he gazes upon them;
and having heard their measured song and music,
now, dear father, he is not toward me as he was before.
Arrayed in ornaments of gold, shapely of form,
adorned, like celestial nymphs (accharā) among humankind,
dear to Sena — O father — their limbs beyond reproach,
the maidens of the warrior caste (khattiya) allure him.
If only, dear father, as in former days,
I might again support that husband of mine in the forest by gleaning (uñchā),
and he would honour me and not despise me,
then that, dear father, would be better for me than even this.
Though food and drink in abundance be laid before her,
a woman decked with polished ornaments, adorned,
endowed with every grace of limb, yet unloved by her husband —
for her, having bound [the noose], death would be better than that.
But even though she be poor, wretched, destitute,
with only a straw mat for her companion, if she is dear to her husband,
then, compared with one endowed with every grace yet unloved,
she indeed is the better — she who, though wretched, is loved.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.