Kimbila — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Twelve · Poem 8 of 10
Setting
A reflective meditation on the disorientation of aging
Speaker
Kimbila (1st), in the first person
Form
One four-line verse, holding a paradox unresolved
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, a subtle psychological observation
Why this text
Kimbila describes old age falling ‘like a curse’ — the same body now feeling like someone else's — and yet insists in the same breath that he is ‘still the same’, that he ‘hasn't been away’. The verse holds both the estrangement and the continuity together, without resolving which is truer.
Reading guide
Old age as a curse falling
Abhisattova nipatati, ‘it falls like a curse’, doesn't describe old age as a slow, gradual process — it captures the subjective jolt of noticing it, as though struck suddenly rather than worn into over years. The comparison is to being cursed, hexed: something done to you, abruptly, rather than something you simply age into.
A paradox held, not resolved
The verse's second half states two things that seem to contradict each other and leaves them both standing: ‘I remember myself as if I were someone else’ — a felt estrangement from one's own past — set directly against ‘I'm still the same, I haven't been away’ — a flat denial of that same estrangement. The verse doesn't pick a side or explain how both can be true; it simply reports the felt experience of aging as containing both at once.
A name shared with a well-documented figure
Kimbila is also the name of one of a well-known trio of forest-dwelling monastic friends — alongside Anuruddha and Nandiya — already documented on this site in MN 31 and MN 128, praised there for practicing together in exceptional harmony. This is a considerably less common name than several other ‘same name’ cases in this collection, though without a surviving comment confirming the connection, this reading guide notes it as a plausible but unconfirmed fit rather than a settled identification.
Key terms
abhisatta — “cursed, hexed” — the verse's opening simile for how old age arrives.
nipatati — “falls” — describing the suddenness of this arrival.
vaya — “old age, decline” — the subject of the verse's central observation.
sarati — “remembers” — the verb behind the verse's account of recalling oneself as a stranger.
avippavasat — “not having gone away, not having been absent” — the verse's closing insistence on unbroken continuity.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Old age falls like a curse; it’s the same body, but it seems like someone else’s. I remember myself as if I were someone else, but I’m still the same, I haven’t been away.
· · ·
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 image does the verse use to describe how old age arrives?
Correct: A. Abhisattova nipatati, the verse's opening simile.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say about the speaker's own body?
Correct: B. Vayo rūpaṁ aññamiva tatheva santaṁ.
Question 3 of 10
Does the verse resolve the tension between feeling like a stranger to oneself and being unbroken in identity?
Correct: C. Both are reported as part of the same felt experience of aging.
Question 4 of 10
What does the verse's closing line insist on?
Correct: A. Aññasseva sarāmi attānaṁ — 'I'm still the same, I haven't been away'.
Question 5 of 10
What well-documented figure does this reading guide note as sharing this elder's name?
Correct: A. A less common name than several other 'same name' cases in this collection.
Question 6 of 10
Does this reading guide confirm this elder is the same Kimbila from MN 31 and MN 128?
Correct: D. No comment survives to settle the identification.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'abhisatta' mean?
Correct: C. The verse's opening simile for old age's arrival.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'avippavasat' mean?
Correct: D. The verse's closing insistence on unbroken continuity.
Question 9 of 10
What kind of verse is this, according to this reading guide?
Correct: D. A felt account rather than a systematic doctrinal exposition.
