[1149] "That, great brahmin, is the rocky mountain Gandhamādana,
where King Vessantara dwells together with his children.
Wearing the guise of a brahmin, with the fruit-hook, the fire-ladle, and matted hair,
clad in hides he lies upon the ground and pays homage to the sacred fire (Jātaveda).
Those trees appear dark green, bearing fruits of many kinds,
risen high like crests of storm-cloud, dark as mountains of collyrium (añjana).
Dhava and assakaṇṇa trees, khadiras and sālas, phandanas and māluvā creepers
tremble together in the wind, like young men who have drunk but once.
Above, along the boughs of the trees, sounds as of choruses are heard:
najjuha birds and flocks of cuckoos flit from tree to tree.
The branches with their wind-stirred leaves seem to call out to the one passing by;
they seem to charm the one who arrives, and they gladden the one who dwells there —
where King Vessantara dwells together with his children,
wearing the guise of a brahmin, with the fruit-hook, the fire-ladle, and matted hair;
clad in hides he lies upon the ground and pays homage to the sacred fire.
(1) Sī., Yu.: bhotā.
Garlands of kareri blossoms lie spread across that delightful stretch of ground;
the earth is green with fresh grass, and no dust rises up there.
In hue like the peacock's neck, in touch like cotton-down,
the grasses round about grow no higher than four fingerbreadths.
Mangoes, rose-apples, wood-apples, and ripe udumbara figs hang on the low boughs;
with its trees yielding food, that woodland heightens delight.
And water flows there too — pure, sweet-scented water,
gleaming like beryl in color, frequented by shoals of fish.
Not far from there, upon a delightful stretch of ground, lies a lotus pond
covered over with paduma and uppala lotuses, as in the Nandana Grove of the devas.
Three kinds of lotus, brahmin, grow in that lake:
many of variegated blue, and white ones, and red."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.