The Girl's Own Verse, Final Five Stanzas
The girl's verse closes with a full catalogue of the prince's own body — golden, mountain-like, his eyes pure and broad, his chest like a lion's own, his tongue and teeth each carrying their own auspicious mark — declaring, mark by mark, that he shall surely become a wheel-turning king, fully endowed with all thirty-two.
Five Stanzas: A Body Fully Endowed With Every Mark
「『其身逾金山， 相好自嚴飾，
我今太子所， 合掌恭敬住。
其目淨修廣， 方臆如師子，
觀者無厭足， 妙音應納我。
舌相廣長妙， 猶如赤銅色，
演出梵音聲， 聞者踊躍喜。
口方牙深固， 齒白而齊密，
若有覩見者， 一切皆歡喜。
離垢清淨身， 具相三十二，
成就此妙相， 必為轉輪王。』」
"Your body surpasses a mountain of gold, adorned of itself with every auspicious mark; I now, before the prince, stand with palms joined in reverence.
Your eyes, pure and broad, your chest square like a lion's own; those who behold you never grow weary of it — with a sublime voice, you ought to accept me.
The mark of your tongue, broad, long, and sublime, like the color of red copper; giving forth a Brahmā-like voice, those who hear it leap for joy.
Your mouth square, your teeth deep-set and firm, white and evenly arrayed; whoever beholds them, every one of them rejoices.
Your stainless, pure body, endowed with the thirty-two marks; having accomplished these sublime marks, you shall surely become a wheel-turning king."
The girl's own catalogue moves through several of the thirty-two marks of a great being individually named elsewhere throughout Buddhist literature — the broad, long tongue; the even, white teeth; the lion's own chest — before closing on the number itself, all thirty-two, and the destiny they signify. Read alongside her opening refusal, the verse now on offer reads less as consent than as a formal recognition of what the prince's own body already declares about his future — a recognition that, notably, stops short of ever repeating her earlier acceptance, or withdrawing her earlier vow to die rather than marry him.
Part 158 In Progress
The girl's own verse is complete. Part 159 turns to the prince's response — he asks whose daughter she is, and to whom she may already be promised, before answering her in his own verse.
Continue to Part 159 →