The Perfection of Truth (1st)

“When I was a monkey

in a cleft on the riverbank,

harassed by a crocodile

I could not get across.

Where I used to land

when jumping from the near shore to the far,

there crouched my deadly foe,

the baleful gharial.

Reassuring me, he said ‘Come!’

‘I am coming,’ I said to him.

Stepping on his head

I made it to the far bank.

I spoke no lie to him,

but acted according to my word.

There is no-one to equal my truthfulness:

this is my perfection of truth.”