Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 564 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 564]
To this lament the Great Being answered not one word. As he said nothing, trembling she
sought her children by the light of the moon; and wheresoever they used to play, under
the rose-apple trees or where not, she sought them, weeping the while, and saying:
"These clusters of rose-apple trees, that droop around the mere,
And all the fruitage of the woods—my children are not here!
Fig-tree and jack-fruit, banyan broad, and every tree that grows,
Yea, all the fruitage of the woods—my children are not here!
There stand they like a pleasant park, there cool the river flows,
The place where once they used to play—but now they are not here.
The fruit that once they used to eat, the flowers they used to wear
That yonder grow upon the hill—the children are not there!
And all the little toys that once they played with, there are those,
The oxen, horses, elephants—the children are not there!
Here are the many hares and owls, the dark and dappled deer,
With which the children used to play, but they themselves not here!
The peacocks with their gorgeous wings, the herons and the geese,
With which the children used to play, but they themselves not here!"
Not finding her darling children in the hermitage, she entered a clump of flowering plants
and looked here and there for them, saying:
"The woodland thickets, full of flowers that every season blow,
Where once the children used to play, but they themselves not here!
The lovely lakes that listen, when the ruddy geese give call,
When lotus white and lotus blue and trees like coral grow, 1
Where once the children played, but now no children are at all."
1
This first two lines of this stanza are also found in Jataka No. 494 (Fausbøll, vol. IV, p.
359, lines 1-2; Cowell, vol. IV, p. 226).