thig.3.5 Therigatha

Ubbiri

"'Jiva, my daughter,'
you cry in the woods.
Come to your senses, Ubbiri.
84,000
all named Jiva
have been burned in that charnel ground.
For which of them do you grieve?"

Pulling out
— completely out —
the arrow so hard to see,
embedded in my heart,
he expelled from me
— overcome with grief —
the grief
over my daughter.Today — with arrow removed,
without hunger, entirely
Unbound —
to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha I go,
for refuge to
the Sage.

- Translator: Thanissaro Bhikkhu

- Editor: Ayya Kathrin Vimalañāṇī

---

Ubbirī

“You cry ‘Please be living!’ in the forest.
Ubbirī, get a hold of yourself!
Eighty-four thousand people,
all named ‘living being’,
have been burnt in this funeral ground:
which one do you grieve for?”
“Oh! For you have plucked the arrow from me,
so hard to see, stuck in the heart.
You’ve swept away the grief for my daughter
in which I once was mired.
Today I’ve plucked the arrow,
I’m hungerless, extinguished.
I go for refuge to that sage, the Buddha,
to his teaching, and to the Sangha.”