[163] "We ask you another question; come now, tell us this: how (kathaṃ nu) do the wise cross over the flood — birth and aging, and sorrow and lamentation?"
**Kathaṃ nu** ("how"): this is a question of doubt, a question of perplexity, a question of two minds, a non-categorical question: "Is it thus, or is it not thus? What is it, or how is it?" Hence, "how."
**Dhīrā** ("the wise"): the wise, the learned, those possessed of wisdom, those endowed with intelligence, those endowed with knowledge (ñāṇa), the discerning, the sagacious.
**Oghaṃ** ("the flood"): the flood of sensuality (kāmogha), the flood of existence (bhavogha), the flood of views (diṭṭhogha), the flood of ignorance (avijjogha).
**Jāti** ("birth"): the birth of those various beings into this or that order of beings, their being born, their descent [into the womb], their production, their coming forth, the manifestation of the aggregates (khandha), the obtaining of the sense bases (āyatana).
**Jarā** ("aging"): the aging of those various beings in this or that order of beings, their decrepitude, brokenness of teeth, grayness of hair, wrinkledness of skin, the decline of the life-span, the maturing of the faculties (indriya).
**Soko** ("sorrow"): for one touched by the loss of relatives, or touched by the loss of wealth, or touched by loss through illness, or touched by the loss of virtue, or touched by the loss of view, or for one who meets with some misfortune or other, or who is touched by some painful thing or other — the sorrow, the act of sorrowing, the state of sorrowfulness, inner sorrow, inner deep sorrow, inner burning, inner deep burning, the smoldering of the mind, grief (domanassa), the dart of sorrow.
**Paridevo** ("lamentation"): for one touched by the loss of relatives, or touched by the loss of wealth, or touched by loss through illness, or touched by the loss of virtue, or touched by the loss of view, or for one who meets with some misfortune or other, or who is touched by some painful thing or other — the crying, the wailing, the act of crying, the act of wailing, the state of having cried, the state of having wailed, the talk, the prattle, the ranting, the lamenting, the act of lamenting, the state of lamentation.
**"How do the wise cross over the flood — birth and aging, and sorrow and lamentation?"**: how do the wise cross, cross over, cross beyond, transcend, and pass beyond the flood, and birth and aging, and sorrow, and lamentation? Hence, "how do the wise cross over the flood — birth and aging, and sorrow and lamentation?"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.