Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace
Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace
Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace
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Translation 553 <strong>Vessantara</strong>-Jåtaka<br />
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 553]<br />
Meanwhile Jūjaka beat the children as he led them along. Then the boy said lament<strong>in</strong>g:<br />
"How true that say<strong>in</strong>g seems to be which men are wont to tell:<br />
Who has no mother of his own is fatherless as well. 1<br />
Life's noth<strong>in</strong>g to us: let us die; we are his chattels now,<br />
This cruel greedy violent man, who drives us like his cow.<br />
These clusters of rose-apple trees, which droop around the lake,<br />
And all the verdure of the woods, O Kaṇhā, we forsake.<br />
Fig-tree <strong>and</strong> jack-fruit, banyan tree, <strong>and</strong> every tree that grows,<br />
Yea all the many k<strong>in</strong>ds of fruit, O Kaṇhā, we forsake.<br />
There st<strong>and</strong> they like a pleasant park, there cool the river flows;<br />
The place where once we used to play, O Kaṇhā, we forsake.<br />
The fruit that once we used to eat, the flowers we used to wear,<br />
That yonder grow upon the hill, O Kaṇhā, we forsake.<br />
And all the little pretty toys that once we played with there,<br />
The horses, oxen, elephants, O Kaṇhā, we forsake."<br />
Aga<strong>in</strong> the brahm<strong>in</strong> fell down <strong>in</strong> a rough place: the cord fell from his h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
children, trembl<strong>in</strong>g like wounded fowls, ran away without stopp<strong>in</strong>g back to their father.<br />
Expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g this, the Master said:<br />
"Now Jāli <strong>and</strong> Kaṇhāj<strong>in</strong>ā, thus by the brahm<strong>in</strong> led,<br />
Somehow got free, <strong>and</strong> then away <strong>and</strong> on <strong>and</strong> on they fled."<br />
1<br />
Read<strong>in</strong>g: sakā mātā, pitā n’ atthi (B d has pitā). So the Burmese version.