Anñataraṅ Therī — The Book of the Ones · Poem 1 of 18
Setting
No narrative setting; a short verse with a one-line attribution naming no individual
Speaker
An unnamed nun, addressing herself in the second person
Form
A homage line, one four-line verse, and a closing attribution note
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
★☆☆☆☆ — four lines, opening a collection of seventy-three
Why this text
The Therigatha (“Verses of the Senior Nuns”) opens not with a named, celebrated figure but with an anonymous voice: a nun addressing herself tenderly, in the second person, as she settles into a peace compared to vegetables boiled down until nothing remains but stillness. It is one of seventy-three poems in this collection, attributed to enlightened women of the earliest generation of Buddhist nuns — among the oldest surviving spiritual autobiography by women anywhere in world literature.
Reading guide
A collection of seventy-three poems, organized by length
The Therigatha gathers seventy-three poems into ‘books’ grouped by how many verses tradition attributes to each poet: a Book of the Ones for single-verse poems, a Book of the Twos, and onward, growing steadily longer, up to the Great Book — a single very long poem attributed to the nun Sumedhā that closes the entire collection.
Not past-life stories, but this life
Unlike the Cariyapitaka, which recounts the Buddha's own past lives, every poem in the Therigatha concerns the speaker's present life: the hardship or insight that led her to renounce the household, the struggle of training, and, for many poems, the moment of her own awakening, stated directly.
Two voices, not always distinguishable at a glance
Some Therigatha poems are addressed to a nun by someone else, often the Buddha, in the second person, encouraging her while she is still training. Others are spoken by a nun in the first person, often describing an awakening already achieved. This first poem uses the second-person form, but the attribution names no outside speaker — it is the nun herself, addressing herself as ‘little nun’.
Beginning with no name at all
Before any of the collection's many named women appear, its first voice is anonymous. The image itself is domestic and exact: desire ‘quelled, like vegetables boiled dry in a pot’ — craving not violently extinguished but simply, gradually, boiled away to nothing.
Key terms
therī — “senior nun” or “elder nun” — the collection's own title, applied to the enlightened women whose verses it gathers.
gāthā — “verse” — the second half of this collection's title, naming the form every one of its seventy-three poems takes.
yoga — “yoke” — a recurring image across this collection for the ties, especially craving, binding a person to further rebirth.
nibbāna — “extinguishment” or “quenching” — not named directly in this poem, but the state its central image of boiled-dry vegetables describes without naming.
‘that is how this verse was recited by’ — a closing attribution formula appearing after some of this book's shortest poems, naming who spoke the preceding verse and under what circumstance — present here, though for an unnamed speaker.
The text
The text in full: a homage line, then the verse itself, with its closing attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Homage to him, the blessed one, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha!
§2Sleep softly, little nun, wrapped in the cloth you sewed yourself; for your desire has been quelled, like vegetables boiled dry in a pot.
§3That is how this verse was recited by a certain unnamed nun.
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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
Who speaks this poem, according to its own attribution?
Correct: B. The collection's first voice is anonymous.
Question 2 of 10
How does the Therigatha organize its seventy-three poems?
Correct: B. From the Book of the Ones through to the Great Book.
Question 3 of 10
How does the Therigatha differ from the Cariyapitaka in subject matter?
Correct: B. Hardship, training, and often the moment of awakening, all in this one life.
Question 4 of 10
What two kinds of speaker appear across the Therigatha's poems?
Correct: B. Not always distinguishable at a glance without checking the attribution.
Question 5 of 10
What image does this poem use to describe the speaker's quelled desire?
Correct: B. Craving not violently extinguished, but gradually boiled away to nothing.
Question 6 of 10
What does the speaker call herself in this poem?
Correct: B. A tender, diminutive self-address.
Question 7 of 10
What is the traditional final book of the Therigatha, closing the whole collection?
Correct: B. The longest single poem in the entire collection.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'yoga' mean, as the term is used across this collection?
Correct: B. A recurring image across many Therigatha poems.
Question 9 of 10
What companion collection, still to come on this site, gathers similar verses attributed to monks?
Correct: B. A much larger companion collection, 264 poems.
Question 10 of 10
What scholarly distinction is often made about the Therigatha as a body of literature?
Correct: B. A frequently noted point about this collection's historical significance.
