Jātaka Tales 297

This verse is not included in this edition.

Kāma-Vilāpa-Jātaka

“O bird, that fliest,” etc.—This story the Master told at J etavana, about a man who pined for his former wife. The circumstances which called it forth are? explained-?, in the Puppharatta Birth-tale’, and the tale of the past in

This verse is not included in this edition.

So the man was impaled alive. As he hung there, he looked up and saw a crow flying through the air; and, nought recking of the bitter pain, he hailed the crow, to send a message to his dear wife, repeating these verses following:

Kāmavilāpajātaka

“Ucce sakuṇa ḍemāna, pattayāna vihaṅgama; Vajjāsi kho tvaṁ vāmūruṁ, ciraṁ kho sā karissati.

“0 bird, that fliest in the sky! O winged bird, that fliest high! Tell my wife, with thighs so fair: Long will seem the time to her.

Idaṁ kho sā na jānāti, asiṁ sattiñca oḍḍitaṁ; Sā caṇḍī kāhati kodhaṁ, taṁ me tapati no idaṁ.

“She knows not sword and spear are set: Full wroth and angry she will fret. That is my torment and my fear, And not that I am hanging here.

Esa uppalasannāho, nikkhañcussīsakohitaṁ; Kāsikañca muduṁ vatthaṁ, tappetu dhanikā piyā”ti.

“My lotus-mail I have put by, And jewels in my pillow lie, And soft Benares cloth beside. With wealth let her be satisfied.”

This verse is not included in this edition.

With these lamentations, he died.

This verse is not included in this edition.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths, and identified the Birth (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the lovesick brother attained the fruition of the First Path): “The wife then was the wife now; but the spirit who saw this, was I myself.”