Reading guide
Destitution, stated without softening
‘A childless widow, bereft of friends or relatives, I got neither food nor clothes’ opens the poem in a state as bleak as any in this collection — seven years spent begging from family to family, ‘burned by heat and cold’.
Paṭācārā, named for a third poem running
‘Out of sympathy for me, Paṭācārā gave me the going forth’ makes this the third consecutive poem in the Book of the Fives to name her directly — her own realization in Thig 5.10, the thirty nuns she taught in Thig 5.11, and now a single destitute widow she personally ordains.
A specific request, quoted directly
‘Approaching her, I said: “send me forth to homelessness”’ preserves Candā's own words at the moment of asking — a specific, quoted request, not only a general account of seeking ordination.
A declaration echoing the poem just before it
‘Master of the three knowledges, I am free of defilements’ closes this poem almost word for word as the thirty nuns closed Thig 5.11 — one woman's declaration now matching the group's, closing the entire book on the same formula.
Key terms
The text
§1I used to be in a sorry state. As a childless widow, bereft of friends or relatives, I got neither food nor clothes.
§2I took a bowl and a staff and went begging from family to family. For seven years I wandered, burned by heat and cold.
§3Then I saw a nun receiving food and drink. Approaching her, I said: “Send me forth to homelessness.”
§4Out of sympathy for me, Paṭācārā gave me the going forth. Then, having advised me, she urged me on to the ultimate goal.
§5After hearing her words, I did her bidding. The lady’s advice was not in vain: master of the three knowledges, I am free of defilements.
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