[441] "Why would you make me waste away with wealth?
What use is a wife to one who will die?
What use is youth that wears out,
which is overwhelmed by aging?
Therein what delight is there, what play,
what pleasure, what quest for wealth?
What have I to do with sons and wives?
O King, I am freed from bondage.
I who understand thus:
'Death (maccu) is not heedless of me' —
for one overtaken by the Ender (antaka),
what pleasure is there, what quest for wealth?
As for ripened fruits
there is constant peril from falling,
so for mortals who are born
there is constant peril from death.
In the evening some are seen no more,
though many people were seen in the morning;
in the morning some are seen no more,
though many people were seen in the evening.
Today itself the ardent effort (ātappa) must be made;
who knows whether death will come tomorrow?
For we have no bargain
with Death and his great army.
It is thieves who long for wealth;
O King, I am freed from bondage.
Come, O King, turn back —
I have no need of kingship."
The Temiya Jātaka, the first.
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2. The Mahājanaka Jātaka
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.