Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 578 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 578]
And set on their grandparents' hips, the king then spake and said:
"Jāli, your parents are we trust both prosperous and well,
With grain to glean and roots and fruits abundant where they dwell. 1
Have they been much by flies and gnats and creeping things annoyed,
And have they from wild beasts of prey immunity enjoyed?"
The lad replied:
"I thank thee, king, and answer thus: my parents both are well,
With grain to glean and roots and fruits abundant where they dwell.
From flies and gnats and creeping things they suffer not annoy,
And from wild beasts of prey they there immunity enjoy.
Wild bulbs and radishes she digs, catmint and herbs seeks she, 2
With jujubes, nuts, and vilva fruit she finds us food alway.
And when she brings wild fruits and roots, whatever they may be,
We all together come and eat by night and eke by day.
Our mother's thin and yellow grown by seeking for our food,
Exposed to heat, exposed to wind in the beast-haunted wood.
Like to a tender lotus flower held in the hand which fades:
Her hair is thin 3 with wandering amid the forest glades.
Beneath her armpits clotted dirt, her hair in topknot bound,
She tends the fire, and clothed in skins she sleeps upon the ground."
Thus having described his mother's hardships, he reproached his grandfather in these
words:
"It is the custom in the world that each man loves his son;
But this in one case it would seem your honour has not done."
1 A recurring theme: See pp. 532, 542, and 569 above, and 584 below.
2
See Fausbøll, vol. IV, p. 371, line 23 (Cowell, vol. IV, p. 234).
3 Scholiast: "Torn out by the twigs of the trees."