Dhaniya: Cooked is the evening rice, all milked the kine,
By Mahi’s banks with friends, good cheer is mine,
My house well roofed, my fire glows bright and still;
And so, rain on, O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: Hatred, and Forwardness from me are gone,
By Mahi’s banks I bide this night alone.
My House unroofed, my Fires in ashes lie;
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
Dhaniya: No stinging gnats are here to tease and fret.
My cattle crop the grasses lush and wet,
And take no hurt though floods the valley fill;
And so, rain on O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: The Raft is bound and well together cast,
The Further Shore attained, the Flood o’erpast,
Of well-made Raft what further need have I?
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
Dhaniya: Obedient is my wife: no wanton she;
Long have I lived with her full happily;
Nor ever heard of her a breath of ill;
And so, rain on O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: My mind obedient is, from Passion freed,
Long trained in Wisdom’s way, subdued indeed!
Evil in me, what searcher can espy?
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
Dhaniya: My needs are met by my own body’s hire,
My sturdy boys sit round my own house fire;
Nor do I hear of them one word of ill:
And so, rain on O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: No hireling, I, to servile bonds inclined.
I walk the world content with what I find.
Of wage or hire, no smallest need have I;
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
Dhaniya: Cattle have I; yea, cows in milk are mine,
And cows with calf, and tender, rising kine,
And lordly bulls whose ways the herds fulfill;
And so, rain on O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: Cattle I’ve none, nor cows in milk are mine.
Nor cows with calf, nor tender, rising kine,
Nor lordly bulls to lead the herds have I;
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
Dhaniya: The stakes all deeply driven, set firm and sure,
The newly-plaited ropes of grass secure
No frenzied beast can break by any skill;
And so, rain on O sky, if such thy will!
The Buddha: Like bull, bursting the bond that fetters him,
Or elephant freeing his tangled limb,
No more shall I put on morality;
So, an it liketh thee, rain on O sky!
And now the furious showers came down amain
In pouring floods that covered hill and plain
And, listening to the beating of the rain,
Dhamiya, faithful, thus found voice again:
Dhaniya: Surely our gain is great and to be praised,
Whose eyes upon the Blessed One have gazed!
O Seeing One, we put our trust in Thee!
O Mighty Sage, do thou our Teacher be!
Submissive, lo! We wait, my wife and I,
To live the Holy Life, the Pathway High
That leads beyond all birth and death to know,
And win the final end of every woe.
Mara: He that hath boys rejoiceth in his boys.
He that hath kine, of kine are all his joys.
Man’s Being surely is chiefest treasure.
Who hath no Being: how shall he have pleasure?
The Buddha: Whose hath boys, hath sorrow of his boys
Whose hath kine, by kine come his annoys.
Man’s Being, this of all his woes is chief,
Who hath no Being nevermore hath
Sutta Nipāta: Dhaniya
(Tr. Bhikkhu Silacara)
