Therīgāthā 33

Verses of the Senior Nuns 3.5

The Book of the Threes

Ubbirī

1 “You cry ‘Live, my dear mother!’ in the forest.

Ubbirī, get a hold of yourself!

Eighty-four thousand people,

all named ‘Live’,

have been burnt in this funeral ground:

which one do you grieve for?”

2 “Oh! For you have plucked the arrow from me,

so hard to see, stuck in the heart.

You’ve swept away the grief for my daughter

in which I once was mired.

3 Today I’ve plucked the arrow,

I’m hungerless, quenched.

I go for refuge to that sage, the Buddha,

to his teaching, and to the Saṅgha.”