Usabha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eleven · Poem 10 of 10
Setting
A nature scene paralleled with spiritual flourishing, closing this chapter's tenth and final poem
Speaker
An unnamed voice, naming Usabha within the verse itself
Form
One four-line verse, followed by the chapter's formulaic double closing
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
★☆☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, one extended nature image
Why this text
Mountain trees, ‘freshly sprinkled by towering clouds’, have grown tall — and for Usabha, ‘who loves seclusion, and who thinks only of wilderness’, goodness flourishes the same way, ‘more and more’. It closes a chapter that has spent much of its length on warnings and unresolved failures, on a purely flourishing note.
Reading guide
Rain and trees, goodness and seclusion
Nagā nagaggesu susaṁvirūḷhā plays on a genuine Pali double meaning: naga can mean both ‘tree’ and ‘mountain’, so the line reads literally as ‘trees, on the mountain-tops, well-grown’, with the same root supplying both halves of the image. The parallel that follows — kalyāṇa, ‘goodness’, growing bhiyyo, ‘more and more’, the way rain-fed trees grow taller — is a rarer, gentler kind of image for this collection, which has more often reached for warning similes (a stuffed hog, an unrestrained young deer) than for straightforward flourishing.
Named again, within its own verse
Usabhassa kalyatan, ‘Usabha's goodness’, names its own subject inside the verse itself, joining Thag 1.83 (Sīha) and Thag 1.93 (Eraka) as poems in this collection that build the elder's own name directly into their text rather than leaving it only in the attribution line.
A chapter that closes gently after a critical run
Chapter Eleven opened with a warning about incomplete renunciation (Thag 1.101) and included several other verses naming obstacles, failures, and unresolved critique (Thag 1.102, Thag 1.105, Thag 1.109). This closing poem shifts that tone entirely: no warning, no obstacle, only flourishing — a chapter that spends much of its length pointing at what goes wrong closes by simply describing what goes right.
The chapter's double closing
As in every chapter so far, two more lines follow the poem itself, both left untranslated by Sujato: vaggo ekādasamo (‘the eleventh chapter [ends]’), then an uddāna listing all ten names. This uddāna adds two more epithets not found in either elder's own verse: Khitaka becomes khitako isi (‘Khitaka the sage’), and Usabha himself becomes usabho mahāmuni (‘Usabha the great sage’) — continuing the same pattern already seen in the uddānas closing Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten.
Key terms
naga — a Pali word meaning both “tree” and “mountain”, played on in this verse's opening line.
udagga — “towering, exultant” — describing the clouds that water the trees.
viveka — “seclusion” — what this verse says Usabha loves.
kalyāṇa — “goodness” — what the verse says flourishes ‘more and more’ in him.
vaggo ekādasamo — “the eleventh chapter [ends]” — the untranslated closing marker for this chapter.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1The trees on the mountain tops have grown tall, freshly sprinkled by towering clouds. For Usabha, who loves seclusion, and who thinks only of wilderness, goodness flourishes more and more.
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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 double meaning does 'naga' carry, played on in this verse's opening line?
Correct: B. The same root supplies both halves of the opening image.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say flourishes 'more and more' in Usabha?
Correct: C. Kalyāṇa, paralleled with the rain-fed trees growing taller.
Question 3 of 10
What two earlier poems does this reading guide compare to this verse, as poems that name their own subject within the verse itself?
Correct: B. Both build the elder's name directly into the poem's own text.
Question 4 of 10
How does this poem's tone compare to much of the rest of Chapter Eleven?
Correct: D. A gentle close after Thag 1.101, 1.102, 1.105, and 1.109.
Question 5 of 10
What two untranslated lines follow this verse, as in every chapter so far?
Correct: D. Vaggo ekādasamo, then the uddāna.
Question 6 of 10
What epithet does the chapter's uddāna add to Khitaka's name?
Correct: A. Khitako isi, not found in his own verse.
Question 7 of 10
What epithet does the uddāna add to Usabha's own name?
Correct: C. Usabho mahāmuni, not found in his own verse.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'viveka' mean?
Correct: A. What this verse says Usabha loves.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'udagga' mean?
Correct: A. Describing the clouds that water the trees.
