Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 550 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 550]
To this the Great Being answered not one word. Then the boy said, lamenting on account
of his parents: 1
"I care not for the pain of death, that is the lot of all:
Ne’er more to see my mother's face, ’tis this that doth appal.
I care not for the pain of death, that is the lot of all:
Ne’er more to see my father's face, ’tis this that doth appal.
Long will my parents mourn and weep, long will they nurse their woe,
At midnight and at dawn their tears will like a river flow,
No more to see Kaṇhājinā, whom they had cherished so.
Those clusters of rose-apple trees which droop around the lake,
And all the fruitage of the woods this day we do forsake.
Fig-tree and jack-fruit, banyan broad and every tree that grows,
Yea! all the fruitage of the woods this day we do forsake.
There stand they like a pleasant park, there cool the river flows,
The place where once we used to play, this day we do forsake.
The fruit that once we used to eat, the flowers we used to wear,
That yonder grow upon the hill, this day we do forsake.
And all the pretty little toys that once we played with there,
The horses, oxen, elephants, this day we do forsake."
1
On the longing for absent kin, see Jataka No. 543 (Cowell, vol. VI, pp. 80-113). The
present verses have been compressed in translation.