[311] Then indeed, sirs, Ānanda the vulture king, having understood the verses of the bird Kuṇāla in their beginning, their middle, and their end, on that occasion spoke these verses:
"Though a man should give this earth, filled with treasure,
to the woman he esteems,
she, once she finds her moment, would despise even him:
let one not come under the sway of those unchaste women.
Though a man be industrious, of unflagging conduct,
the husband of her girlhood, dear and pleasing,
yet in misfortunes and in duties they forsake him;
therefore I place no trust in women.
Let a man not trust, thinking, 'She desires me';
let him not trust, thinking, 'She weeps in my presence';
for these consort with the dear and the not-dear alike,
as a boat with the near bank and the far.
One should not trust an old strewn covering of branches;
one should not trust an old friend turned thief;
one should not trust a king,¹ thinking, 'He is my comrade';
one should not trust a woman, though she be the mother of ten.
One should not trust in women who are makers of delight,
who have overstepped virtue, unrestrained;
though she be the wife of a man rapt in utmost love,
let him not trust her: for women are even as a ford.
They may slay, they may cut, they may have others cut;²
having severed the very throat,³ they would drink the blood.
Let him not set his heart upon women of base desires,
unrestrained, who are like a bathing-ford on the Gaṅgā.
Falsehood with them is as truth,
and truth with them is as falsehood;
as cows amid the grass abroad,
they light upon ever the choicest.
With their gait they allure,
with a glance and a smile,⁴
and again with dress worn loose
and with honeyed speech.
Thieves are they, hard-hearted,⁵
savage, and sugared of tongue;
there is nothing they do not know
of the deceit that is among men.
Vile are the women of this world;
for them no bound is found:
impassioned they are and brazen,
like the crested fire that devours all.
For women there is none called 'dear,'
nor is any 'not dear' found;
for these consort with the dear and the not-dear alike,
as a boat with the near bank and the far.
For women there is none called 'dear,'
nor is any 'not dear' found;
for the sake of wealth they twine about a man,
as a creeper about the tree on which it leans.
An elephant-keeper, a horse-keeper,
a cowherd, a caṇḍāla,
a burner of corpses, a clearer of refuse —
if he have wealth, women run after him.
Even a son of good family they abandon
when he has nothing, as though he were a corpse;
yet after one of that very sort they run —
women, for the sake of wealth."
[Variant readings: ¹ M.: rājānaṃ sakhā; Sī., Yu.: rājā sakhā. ² M.: haneyyuṃ chindeyyuṃ; Sī., Yu.: haneyyu chindeyyapi chedayeyyuṃ. ³ M.: kaṇṭhepi. ⁴ M.: pekkhitenamhitena ca. ⁵ M.: kathinā.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.