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 575 <strong>Vessantara</strong>-Jåtaka<br />
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 575]<br />
The k<strong>in</strong>g said:<br />
"By what soft speech or word of truth did you make him believe?<br />
From whom these children, chiefest of all gifts, did you receive?"<br />
Jūjaka said:<br />
"It was the K<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Vessantara</strong>, <strong>in</strong> forest l<strong>and</strong>s who lives,<br />
Gave them as slaves, who like the earth to all suitors freely gives.<br />
’Twas K<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Vessantara</strong> who gave his own as slaves to me,<br />
To whom all suitors go, as go all rivers to the sea."<br />
Hear<strong>in</strong>g this, the courtiers spake <strong>in</strong> dispraise of <strong>Vessantara</strong>:<br />
"Were he at home, it were ill done by any k<strong>in</strong>g that's good:<br />
How could he give his children then, when banisht <strong>in</strong> the wood?<br />
O listen to me, gentles all, that here assembled st<strong>and</strong>,<br />
How could the k<strong>in</strong>g his children give to serve another's h<strong>and</strong>?<br />
Slaves male or female he might give, a horse, a mule, a car,<br />
Or elephants: but how give those who his own children are?"<br />
But the boy hear<strong>in</strong>g this, could not stomach his father's blame; but as though rais<strong>in</strong>g with<br />
his arm Mount S<strong>in</strong>eru smitten by the w<strong>in</strong>dblast, 1 he recited this stanza:<br />
"How, gr<strong>and</strong>sire, can he give, when none <strong>in</strong> his possession are,<br />
Slaves male or female, elephants, a horse, a mule, a car?"<br />
The k<strong>in</strong>g said:<br />
1 The world is destroyed sometimes by fire or water, sometimes by w<strong>in</strong>d. The<br />
construction is difficult; I take vātābhihatassa s<strong>in</strong>eruno as genitive absolute, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
object as understood.