[291]
"Maidens, and those women guarded by their clan,
aged women, and women who have husbands —
when desire and lust (chandarāga) for men has surged up in them,
they restrain their own minds (citta) through moral shame (hirī).
In the van of battle, where arrow and spear are joined,
while the defeated are falling and fleeing,
some turn back through moral shame, abandoning their very lives;
and those conscientious ones receive (their masters) once again.
Just as the shore holds back the surging force of the ocean,
so this Hirī holds back people of evil;
that Hirī, honored by the noble ones in all the world —
make her known to Inda, O charioteer of the devas."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.