No narrative setting beyond what the verses state; no closing attribution
Speaker
The nun Sāmā, speaking in the first person about twenty-five years of unsuccessful effort
Form
Three verses of four, four, and six lines, opening the Book of the Threes
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 in form, notable chiefly for what it repeats from the book just closed
Why this text
This poem opens the Book of the Threes with a second nun named Sāmā — its title, ‘Another Sāmā’, points back directly at Thig 2.10, the poem that just closed the book before it. The two poems share more than a name: a full line of this poem's opening verse repeats Thig 2.10 word for word, and its closing verse repeats a quatrain already used twice in the book just finished.
Reading guide
A name-pair spanning a book boundary
Earlier same-name pairs in this collection — the two Tissās of Thig 1.4 and 1.5, the two Sumanās of Thig 1.14 and 1.16 — sit inside a single book. This is the first pair to fall across a boundary: Thig 2.10's Sāmā closes the Book of the Twos, and this ‘Another Sāmā’ opens the Book of the Threes immediately after.
A line repeated exactly from the poem just before
This poem's second verse opens ‘I had failed to find peace of heart, or any control over my mind’ — the identical line, word for word, that opened Thig 2.10's account of the other Sāmā's struggle. Two different women, consecutive poems, the same confession of failure.
A closing quatrain used for the third time
‘Though subject to so many painful things... fulfilled the Buddha's instructions’ closed both Thig 2.9 and Thig 2.10. Here it closes a third poem in a row, each time followed by a different precise count of days: unspecified urgency in 2.9, an eighth night in 2.10, and here a seventh day.
Twenty-five years, then seven days
The poem's real span is the gap between two numbers: twenty-five years of monastic life without ever finding serenity, set against the seven days since her breakthrough — a long failure resolved abruptly once urgency, prompted by remembering the Buddha's own instructions, took hold.
Key terms
Sāmā — this poem's speaker, sharing a name with Thig 2.10's Sāmā but explicitly a different individual, as the title states.
jinasāsana — “the victor's instructions” — remembering these is what struck her with a sense of urgency after twenty-five fruitless years.
saṁvega — the sense of urgency or spiritual dismay named directly as her turning point, here translated ‘struck with a sense of urgency’.
taṇhakkhaya — “the ending of craving” — the same term closing Thig 2.9 and Thig 2.10, repeated again in this poem's closing verse.
cariyā — not used here; like several poems just before it, this one closes with no formal attribution note.
The text
The text in full: three verses, opening the Book of the Threes. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1In the twenty-five years since I went forth, I don’t know that I had ever found serenity in my mind.
§2I had failed to find peace of heart, or any control over my mind. When I remembered the victor’s instructions, I was struck with a sense of urgency.
§3Though subject to so many painful things, I have, through my love of diligence, reached the ending of craving, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions. This is the seventh day since my craving dried up.
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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 years does Sāmā say passed without her finding serenity?
Correct: C. 'In the twenty-five years since I went forth' — a long span of failure.
Question 2 of 10
What triggers her turning point, according to the second verse?
Correct: D. 'When I remembered the victor's instructions, I was struck with a sense of urgency.'
Question 3 of 10
What line does this poem's second verse share word for word with Thig 2.10?
Correct: A. The identical confession of failure opens both poems' accounts.
Question 4 of 10
What relationship does this poem's title state to Thig 2.10?
Correct: B. The title signals a shared name, not a shared identity, for two different nuns.
Question 5 of 10
How many times, counting this poem, has the closing quatrain 'though subject to so many painful things...fulfilled the Buddha's instructions' now appeared?
Correct: C. Thig 2.9, Thig 2.10, and now this poem all close on the identical formula.
Question 6 of 10
How precisely does this poem date its speaker's breakthrough?
Correct: D. 'This is the seventh day since my craving dried up' — a specific count, like 2.10's eighth night.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'saṁvega' name in this poem?
Correct: A. Her turning point, named directly rather than merely implied.
Question 8 of 10
What position does this poem hold in the Therigatha as a whole?
Correct: B. The first of eight poems opening this new, longer book.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'taṇhakkhaya' mean?
Correct: C. The same term that closed both poems just before this one.
Question 10 of 10
What overall shape does this poem's own numbers trace?
Correct: A. The real span of the poem is the gap between its two numbers.
