Rādha — The Book of the Twos · Chapter One · Poem 7 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; two four-line verses in a mirrored simile, without a translated attribution
Speaker
Rādha, comparing a house's roofing to a mind's development
Form
Two four-line verses, a matched pair of similes — one negative, one positive
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
★☆☆☆☆ — a clean, symmetrical simile
Why this text
Rādha's verse is word for word identical to two of the Dhammapada's best-known lines (verses 13 and 14): just as rain seeps into a poorly roofed house, lust seeps into an undeveloped mind — and just as rain can't seep into a well-roofed house, lust can't seep into a well-developed mind.
Reading guide
A mirrored simile, negative then positive
The two verses are built as an exact pair: the first states the negative case (poorly roofed house, undeveloped mind, lust seeps in), the second restates the same structure with every term reversed (well-roofed house, well-developed mind, lust stays out). Nothing else appears in the poem — no narrative frame, no personal claim, just the comparison itself.
Word for word identical to Dhammapada 13–14
This site's own Dhammapada page for these verses already describes them as ‘the chapter's best-known architectural simile’, noting that ‘the image works because it locates the vulnerability in preparation, not willpower in the moment of the storm’. Checked directly against bilara-data, this poem's Pali is identical to Dhp 13–14 (aside from a trivial spelling variant, succhannaṁ/suchannaṁ, for ‘well-roofed’) — a complete match across both verses, the same kind of full correspondence already found once before in the Book of the Ones, at Thag 1.92 and Dhp 93.
The same rain-and-hut vocabulary, turned into metaphor
This collection's very first poem, Thag 1.1, pictured Subhūti content in a literal hut safe from real rain, his mind separately described as serene and freed. Rādha's verse uses the identical vocabulary of rain and roofing, but folds the two images into one: the house's shelter and the mind's development become the same claim, rain standing directly for lust rather than sitting beside an unrelated statement about the mind.
Key terms
ducchannaṁ — “poorly roofed” — describing the vulnerable house in the first verse.
succhannaṁ — “well roofed” — the second verse's reversal, the house rain cannot enter.
abhāvitaṁ cittaṁ — “an undeveloped mind” — the state lust seeps into, paired with the poorly roofed house.
subhāvitaṁ cittaṁ — “a well-developed mind” — the reversed state, paired with the well-roofed house.
rāgo — “lust” — what the simile compares directly to rain seeping through a roof.
The text
The text in full: two verses, without a translated attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Just as rain seeps into a poorly roofed house, lust seeps into an undeveloped mind.
§2Just as rain doesn’t seep into a well roofed house, lust doesn’t seep into a well-developed mind.
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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 first verse compare a poorly roofed house to?
Correct: C. A direct, one-to-one comparison.
Question 2 of 10
How does the second verse relate to the first?
Correct: D. A mirrored, matched pair of similes.
Question 3 of 10
What two Dhammapada verses is this poem word for word identical to?
Correct: C. Confirmed directly against bilara-data, aside from a trivial spelling variant.
Question 4 of 10
How does this site's own Dhammapada page describe these lines?
Correct: B. Already featured prominently on the site's own dhp-01.html page.
Question 5 of 10
According to that same page, why does the image work?
Correct: A. The simile's point is about readiness beforehand, not resistance in the moment.
Question 6 of 10
How does this poem's rain-and-roofing imagery relate to Thag 1.1, the collection's opening poem?
Correct: D. Two different uses of the same rain-and-shelter vocabulary.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'rāgo' mean?
Correct: A. What the simile compares directly to rain seeping through a roof.
Question 8 of 10
What is the only kind of full match this project has previously found in the Book of the Ones?
Correct: B. The same kind of complete, both-verses correspondence found once before.
Question 9 of 10
Does this poem include any narrative frame or personal claim of attainment?
Correct: B. The simile stands entirely on its own.
Question 10 of 10
What does 'abhāvitaṁ cittaṁ' mean?
Correct: C. The vulnerable state paired with the poorly roofed house.
