Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 510 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 510]
Thus answer made the monarch great, thus Sivi's foster-king:
"Fine rice has been their food and well-cooked viands hitherto:
If they must feed on wild-tree fruit, what will the children do?
From silver dishes well adorned or golden hitherto,
They ate: but with bare leaves instead what will the children do?
Benares cloth has been their dress, or linen hitherto:
If they must dress in grass or bark, what will the children do?
In carriages or palanquins they've ridden hitherto
When they must run about on foot, what will the children do?
In gabled chambers they would sleep safe-bolted hitherto:
Beneath the roots of trees to lie, what will the children do?
On cushions, rugs or broidered beds they rested hitherto:
Reclining on a bed of grass, what will the children do?
They have been sprinkled with sweet scents and perfumes hitherto:
When covered all with dust and dirt, what will the children do?
When peacock's feathers, yak's tail fans have fanned them hitherto,
Bitten by insects and by flies, what will the children do?"
As they conversed thus together, the dawn came, and after the dawn up rose the sun.
They brought round for the Great Being a gorgeous carriage with a team of four Sindh
horses, and stayed it at the door. Maddī did obeisance to her husband's parents, and,
bidding farewell to the other women, took leave, and with her two sons went before
Vessantara and took her place in the carriage.
Explaining this matter, the Master said:
"Then Maddī answered to the king, that lady bright and fair:
"Do not lament for us, my lord, nor be perplexèd so:
The children both will go with us wherever we shall go."
With these words Maddī went away, that lady bright and fair:
Along the highroad, and the two children her path did share.