[408] "Not from want of joints am I crippled, nor deaf from want of ears;
not from want of a tongue am I mute — do not hold me to be a mute.
I remember a former birth (jāti), wherein I exercised kingship;
having exercised kingship there, I fell headlong into dire hell (niraya).
For twenty years I exercised kingship there;
for eighty thousand years I was roasted in hell.
It was of that kingship I was afraid — 'Let them not anoint me to the kingship!' —
therefore I did not speak at that time in the presence of my father and my mother.
Seating me upon his lap, my father gave his rulings on affairs:
'Slay one! Bind one! Deal one the caustic torture (khārāpatacchika)!
Raise one upon the stake!' — thus did he give his instructions.
Having heard those harsh words uttered,
I — no mute, yet in the guise of a mute; no cripple, yet accounted a cripple —
lay drenched in my own urine and excrement.
Hard is this life, and brief, and it is conjoined with suffering (dukkha);
who, relying upon this life, would contract enmity (vera) with anyone?
Through failure to gain wisdom (paññā) and through not seeing the Dhamma —
who, relying upon this life, would contract enmity with anyone?
Even for those who do not hasten, the hope for fruit comes to fulfillment;
I am one whose holy life (brahmacariya) has ripened — know it thus, charioteer.
Even for those who do not hasten, the right goal ripens;
I am one whose holy life has ripened; gone forth, I have no fear from any quarter."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.