[1187] "Why is this — why are you silent?
And my mind is even as it was in the night:
even the ravens (kākolā) utter no cry —
surely my children are dead!
#1 Ma. (Burmese ed.): paccuṭṭhenti. 2 Ma.: chakaliṃva migiṃ. 3 Ma.: pavilokenti. 4 Ma.: idaṃ
#nesaṃ kīḷanakaṃ. 5 Ma.: mayhime. 6 Ma.: ucchaṅgeko vicināti. 7 Ma.: yassu.
#8 Ma.: ucchaṅge.
Why is this — why are you silent?
And my mind is even as it was in the night:
even the birds utter no cry —
surely my children are dead!
Can it be, O my noble lord, that wild beasts
have devoured my children
in the forest, in the barren waste, in the desolate wild?
Or by whom have my children been carried away?
Or have they been sent by you as messengers?
Or are they asleep, those sweet-speaking ones?
Or have they gone outside?
Are they absorbed in their games?
Their hair is nowhere to be seen,
nor their hands and feet with their net-like lines;
and was it a swooping-down of birds?
By whom have my children been carried away?"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.