Maccha — Book of the Ones · Chapter Four (Kulāvakavagga) · Poem 4 of 10
Setting
A fish caught in a net, his wife having escaped
Speaker
The caught fish
Form
One four-line stanza
Length
Under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — one short, wry, emotionally specific verse
Why this text
This poem's small, human irony — a creature facing death, yet more anxious about a misunderstanding with his wife than about that death itself — gives this collection one of its most emotionally specific and quietly funny moments.
Reading guide
Not fear of death, but fear of being misjudged
The verse states its priority with startling clarity: ‘it's not the cold or heat for me, nor the being caught in the net; it's that my lady, the fish, thinks of me, “he went for joy to another.”’ Per Sujato's comment, when a fish is caught in the net while his wife escapes, he worries more about what she thinks of him than of his own imminent fate.
A specific, recognizable kind of anxiety
The verse's power lies in its specificity: not a general lament about death, but a precise worry about reputation and misunderstanding within a relationship — a distinctly human anxiety placed, with a touch of gentle irony, inside a fish facing its own death.
Key terms
na maṁ sītaṁ na maṁ uṇhaṁ — “it's not the cold or heat for me” — the fish's opening dismissal of the obvious physical discomforts.
jālasmi bādhanaṁ — “being caught in the net” — the literal danger the fish also dismisses as not his real concern.
aññaṁ so ratiyā gato — “he went for joy to another” — the misunderstanding the fish fears his wife now believes.
macchī — “my lady, the fish” — the fish's own wife, whose opinion concerns him more than his own fate.
Macchajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, ‘The Fish’.
The text
The text in full: a single verse. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1It’s not the cold or heat for me, nor the being caught in the net; it’s that my lady, the fish, thinks of me, “He went for joy to another.”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What does the fish say is NOT his real concern, facing death in the net?
Correct: B. All plainly stated as secondary to his actual worry.
Question 2 of 10
What is the fish's real concern, per the verse?
Correct: C. A precise worry about being misjudged by someone he cares about.
Question 3 of 10
What happened to the fish's wife, per Sujato's comment?
Correct: D. Leaving him caught alone, and anxious about how she now interprets his absence.
Question 4 of 10
What kind of anxiety does this verse place inside a fish facing death?
Correct: A. Giving the verse its distinctive, quietly ironic tone.
Question 5 of 10
What tone does this reading guide identify in this verse?
Correct: B. A small, specific human irony rather than a general lament.
Question 6 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: C. The thirty-fourth poem overall, and the fourth of the Kulāvakavagga.
Question 7 of 10
Who speaks this verse?
Correct: D. Giving direct voice to his own priorities in the moment of capture.
Question 8 of 10
What specific accusation does the fish fear his wife believes?
Correct: A. The precise misunderstanding driving his anxiety.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: B. Part of the same ten-poem Kulāvakavagga.
Question 10 of 10
How does this verse's approach differ from a straightforward lament about mortality?
Correct: C. The verse's distinctive, specific emotional focus.
