[437] Let a youth live the holy life (brahmacariya); one who lives the holy life should be a youth;
for the going forth (pabbajjā) of one who is young — this the seers have praised.
Let a youth live the holy life; one who lives the holy life should be a youth;
I shall live the holy life; I have no need of kingship.
I see a young boy of yours, a child who calls "Mother! Father!" —
a dear son, gained with hardship, dead without ever reaching old age.
I see a young girl of yours, a maiden lovely to behold,
come to the destruction of her life like a shoot of young bamboo torn off.
For even the young die, both men and women;
what man, then, could trust in life, thinking, "I am young"?
He whose life grows ever less with the passing of each night,
like that of fish in shallow water — what youthfulness is there in that?
The world is constantly assailed, and constantly hemmed in;
while [the nights] pass by, never in vain, why do you anoint me with kingship?
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.