The Girl's Own Verse, First Five Stanzas
Having heard the deva's words, the girl approaches the prince herself, standing with palms joined, and answers him in verse — describing her own unequaled beauty and wisdom, a mind already free of anger, greed, and delusion, and, turning outward, praising the prince's own body and its auspicious marks.
Five Stanzas: Her Own Beauty, Her Own Purity
「時，彼女人聞是語已，詣太子所，合掌而立，以偈白言：
「『我色世間最， 智慧無倫匹，
才妙善言論， 觀者無厭足。
太子應當知， 我心善貞潔，
志尚心端直， 清淨無所染。
遠離於瞋恚， 貪欲及愚癡，
以真淨直心， 饒益諸群生。
我見太子身， 相好自莊嚴，
見已喜無量， 諸根悉調伏。
妙體猶淨金， 髮美紺青色，
額廣目明徹， 必為自在王。』」
At that time, that girl, having heard these words, went to where the prince was, and, standing with palms joined, spoke to him in verse, saying:
"My own form is supreme in the world, my wisdom without equal or peer; my talent is sublime, skilled in discourse, and those who behold me never grow weary of it.
The prince ought to know: my mind is well and truly chaste; my aspiration is upright and my mind straightforward, pure and untainted by anything.
Departing far from anger and hatred, greed and desire, and folly and delusion, with a true, pure, upright mind, I bring benefit to the sprouting multitudes.
Beholding the prince's own body, adorned of itself with every auspicious mark, having beheld it I rejoice without measure; every one of my own faculties is subdued and tamed.
Your sublime body is like pure gold, your hair beautiful, a deep blue-black hue; your forehead broad, your eyes bright and clear — you shall surely become a sovereign king."
The girl's own opening stanzas are unusual for what they do not do: rather than repeating her refusal, or explaining the dream that has just been revealed to her, she instead names her own qualities plainly — beauty, wisdom, and a mind already free of anger, greed, and delusion — and then turns directly to praising the prince's own body. This is not capitulation; it reads, across the stanzas that follow, more as an assessment offered on equal footing, a girl who has just glimpsed a newly awakened buddha addressing a future king without deference, cataloguing his own marks the way a physiognomist might, before the account reveals what she actually intends to do with this encounter.
Part 157 In Progress
Five stanzas of her own verse are complete. Part 158 continues with the remaining five, cataloguing the prince's own auspicious marks in full — his eyes, tongue, teeth, and the complete thirty-two marks of a great being.
Continue to Part 158 →