[2428]
It is with justice, brahmin, that I am angry with Brahmadatta:
the country folk, left unprotected, are crushed by an unrighteous levy.
#1 Sī. Yu.: tāta. 2 Sī. Yu.: tāva. 3 Ma.: kumāriyo. 4 Yu.: attanā. [page footnote of variant readings]
By night it is thieves that devour them; by day the tax-gatherers (tuṇḍiyā) devour them:
in the realm of a crooked king, many are the folk given to unrighteousness.
Surely — the wretch! — she must have cooked it all over again, that she brought the meal at so untimely an hour;
and while I watched for the bringer of my meal, Sāliya was struck by the ploughshare.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.