Jenta — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Twelve · Poem 1 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a plainspoken catalogue of hardship
Speaker
An unnamed voice speaking in the plural, ‘we’, rather than the first-person singular most verses in this collection use
Form
One four-line verse, of unusually uncertain metre
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 textual-critical curiosity
Why this text
Chapter Twelve, the last chapter of the Book of the Ones, opens with a fourfold litany: going forth is hard, staying home is hard, the Dhamma is profound, and money is hard to come by — concluding that impermanence deserves constant reflection. Sujato's own note on this verse adds a striking textual detail: it is one of the very few verses in the entire Pali Canon whose metre has never been identified.
Reading guide
Four hardships, one conclusion
The verse states four difficulties in quick succession — going forth (pabbajjā), living at home (gehā), understanding the profound Dhamma, and earning money (bhoga) — before drawing them together: ‘getting by is difficult for us who accept whatever comes’, and so ‘we should always think about impermanence’. The logic isn't developed step by step; the four hardships are simply placed side by side, and the conclusion follows from their cumulative weight.
One of the Canon's few unmetered verses
Pali canonical verse almost always fits a small number of known metres, and scholars have been able to classify the overwhelming majority of them. Sujato's own comment on this specific verse notes that it is one of the very few exceptions: ‘This is one of the very few verses in the Pali Canon whose metre has not been identified.’ This reading guide passes that observation along as a genuine textual-critical detail, not something it can independently verify or explain further.
'We', not 'I'
Unlike most first-person verses in this collection, phrased in the singular, this one speaks in the plural — no, ‘for us’, rather than a single voice describing his own path. The hardships named — the difficulty of alms life, the demands of either household or monastic existence — read as shared conditions rather than one man's particular story.
Key terms
duppabbajja — “hard to go forth” — du (‘difficult’) plus pabbajjā (‘going forth’).
duradhivāsa — “hard to dwell in, hard to live at” — describing the difficulty of household life.
gambhīra — “profound, deep” — describing the Dhamma.
itarītara — “whatever comes, this or that” — describing indiscriminate acceptance of alms.
aniccatā — “impermanence” — what the verse concludes should always be reflected on.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Going forth is hard; living at home is hard; Dhamma is profound; money is hard to come by. Getting by is difficult for we who accept whatever comes, so we should always think about impermanence.
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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
How many distinct hardships does this verse name?
Correct: C. Going forth, staying home, the Dhamma's depth, and earning money.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse conclude one should always reflect on?
Correct: A. Satatamaniccataṁ, the verse's closing word.
Question 3 of 10
What striking textual-critical detail does Sujato's own comment note about this verse?
Correct: B. A genuine textual-critical rarity, passed along as noted, not independently verified further.
Question 4 of 10
What grammatical person does this verse speak in?
Correct: C. Unlike most first-person verses in this collection, phrased in the singular.
Question 5 of 10
What does 'gambhīra' mean?
Correct: A. Describing the Dhamma in this verse.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'duppabbajja' mean?
Correct: D. Du ('difficult') plus pabbajjā ('going forth').
Question 7 of 10
What does 'itarītara' describe?
Correct: D. Accepting whatever comes, without preference.
Question 8 of 10
Does the verse develop its four hardships into a step-by-step argument?
Correct: D. A cumulative litany rather than a developed argument.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'duradhivāsa' describe?
Correct: A. The second of the verse's four named hardships.
Question 10 of 10
What chapter does this poem open, and what significance does that chapter have for the whole collection?
Correct: B. The last of Book 1's twelve chapters, completing 120 poems once finished.
