[312] Then indeed, sirs, Nārada the deva-brahmin, having discerned the beginning, the middle, and the end of the verses of Ānanda, king of the vultures, at that time spoke these verses:
"These four are never filled — hear them from me as I speak:
the ocean, the brahmin, the king, and woman too, O lord of birds (dijampati).
Whatever rivers there be that rest upon the earth flow on to the sea,
yet they do not fill the ocean; for through want it is never full.
And a brahmin, though he has studied the Veda with the legends as its fifth [branch],
would wish for still more learning; for through want he is never full.
And a king, having conquered the whole earth with its ocean and its mountains,
heaped with gems without end, and dwelling over it,
yet longs for the ocean's farther shore; for through want he is never full.
Each single woman might have husbands eight apiece —
heroes and men of strength, bringers of every flavor of sensual pleasure —
yet she would conceive desire for a ninth; for through want she is never full.
All women are like flame, devourers of all;
all women are like rivers, sweeping all away;
all women are like branches of thorn;
all women, for the sake of wealth, depart.
A man might [as well] grasp the wind with a net,
might bail the ocean out with a single hand,
might beat a sound out with his own [one] hand,
who would let loose his whole heart among women.
Thieves of many wits, in whom truth is very hard to find —
the nature of women is hard to know, as the path of a fish in the water.
Insatiable, soft of speech, hard to fill, they are like rivers;
they drag [a man] down: knowing this, one should shun them from afar.
They are whirlpools, great in deceit, wreckers of the holy life (brahmacariya);
they drag [a man] down: knowing this, one should shun them from afar.
And whatever [man] these women consort with, whether from desire or for wealth,
him they swiftly burn up, as fire (jātaveda) [burns] the place of its arising."
[Siam Raṭṭha apparatus: ¹ "onattā" — the Maramma (Burmese) edition reads "ūnattā," and so hereafter. ² "adhiyāna" is also read "adhiyānaṃ." ³ "siyuṃ" — Maramma edition: "siyā." ⁴ "haneyya" — Maramma edition: "kareyya."]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.