A series of posts for my draft translation of the Dhammapada, for feedback and discussion. Final version will be on SuttaCentral.
At journey’s end, rid of sorrow;
freed in every way,
all ties given up,
no fever is found in them.
The mindful apply themselves;
they delight in no abode.
Like a swan from the marsh that’s gone,
they leave home after home behind.
They who have nothing stored up,
who have understood their food,
whose domain is the liberation
of the signless and the empty:
their path is hard to trace,
like that of birds in the sky.
One whose defilements have ended;
who’s not attached to food;
whose domain is the liberation
of the signless and the empty:
their track is hard to trace,
like that of birds in the sky.
One whose faculties have become serene,
like horses tamed by a charioteer,
who has abandoned conceit and defilements:
such a one is envied even by the gods.
Untroubled just like the earth;
true to their vows, steady as a boundary pillar;
like a lake cleansed of mud,
the poised do not transmigrate.
Their mind is peaceful;
peaceful are their speech and deeds.
A poised one is at peace,
rightly freed through enlightenment.
A faithless person, a house-breaker,
who fails to appreciate what has been done,
purged of hope, they’ve wasted their chance:
that is indeed the supreme person!
Whether in village or wilderness,
in a valley or the uplands,
wherever the perfected ones live
is a delightful place.
Delightful are the wildernesses
where no people delight.
Those free of greed will delight there,
not those who seek sensual pleasures.
)
