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Ethics

Перевод: Бхиккху Суджато

kn / ja

Stories of Past Lives 15 · The Book of the Ones

“Please accept the eight-hooved ass, ^[1]

the deer more wily than the wily.” ^[2]

“He has skipped the appointment seven times—

I’ll make no effort to instruct him.”

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[1] The story tells how the Bodhisatta declared the deer unteachable after he failed to show up for lessons on the ruses of deer seven times. The verses and stories form a pair with the next Jātaka. Though the verses are in different metres, the prevalence of shared terms, ideas, and poetic play shows they must have been composed together.

The commentary takes kharādiye as the vocative of kharādiyā, the name of the Bodhisatta’s sister. However, I take khara as “ass, mule” and ādiye as second optative, “you should accept”. Asses have solid hooves, as opposed to the cloven-footed deer.

[2] The commentary says his antlers were “crooked root to tip”. But it probably refers to the ruses of animals (MN 51:4.14, AN 8.13:1.11), in which case it may well have been meant as praise.