[2419]
Heedfulness (appamāda) is the path to the deathless (amata);
heedlessness (pamāda) is the path of death.
The heedful do not die;
the heedless are as though already dead.
From intoxication (mada) heedlessness is born;
from heedlessness ruin is born;
from ruin grievous faults arise.
Let there be no intoxication, O bull of the Bharatas!
For many khattiyas (warrior-nobles), being heedless,
have lost both their welfare and their realm;
so too have lords of villages lost their villages,
and householders been left without a home.
When a khattiya is heedless in his realm,
O promoter of the realm,
all his riches perish;
that is called a king's woe.
This is not the way (dhamma), great king —
you are heedless beyond all bounds;
robbers are laying waste to it,
that rich and flourishing land.
No sons will be left to you,
no gold and no grain;
while the realm is being plundered,
you are bereft of all riches.
When a king, though a khattiya,
is stripped of all his riches,
his kinsmen, friends, and boon companions
esteem him no more in counsel.
Elephant riders, guardsmen of the ranks,
charioteers, and foot soldiers,
though they live in dependence upon him,
esteem him no more in counsel.
Fortune (sirī) forsakes the fool
whose affairs are left undirected,
who devises evil counsels, the witless one,
as a snake forsakes its worn-out skin.
But for one whose affairs are well directed,
who rises in due season and is unwearied,
all riches grow ever greater,
as a herd of cattle with its bull.
Go about, great king, to listen
throughout the realm and the countryside;
and having there both seen and heard,
then act upon it accordingly.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.