Buddhist shelf · Pali Canon · Jātaka 237 · Dukanipāta · Upāhanavagga
SāketajātakaJātaka 237 · Volume 2, translated by W. H. D. Rouse (1895)
Public domain. W. H. D. Rouse’s translation was published in 1895. The Pali is the Mahāsaṅgīti edition published by SuttaCentral under CC0. The canonical Pali Jātaka consists of the verses only (2 verses here); the prose story around them comes from the later commentary, which the English translates in full. So the verses are shown beside the whole English story, not verse by verse.
Pali verses
“Ko nu kho bhagavā hetu,
ekacce idha puggale;
Atīva hadayaṁ nibbāti,
cittañcāpi pasīdati”.
“Pubbeva sannivāsena,
paccuppannahitena vā;
Evaṁ taṁ jāyate pemaṁ,
uppalaṁva yathodake”ti.
English Rouse 1895
"Why are hearts cold," etc.--This story the Master told during a stay near Sāketa, about a brahmin named Sāketa. Both the circumstances that suggested the story and the story itself have already been given in the First Book 3.
[235]...And when the Tathāgata had gone to the monastery, the Brother asked, "How, Sir, did the love begin? "and repeated the first stanza:--
Why are hearts cold to one--O Buddha, tell!--
And love another so exceeding well?"
The Master explained the nature of love by the second stanza:
"Those love they who in other lives were dear,
As sure as grows the lotus in the mere."
After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth:--"These two people were the brahmin and his wife in the story; and I was their son."
Translator’s notes (1)
p. 162, n. 3 No. 68.