Ok, found out who translated that passage:

Here's a question for you guys. The thanissaro version
is different, and it doesn't make sense (with the
indian rhino having one horn compared to other
rhinos). I did a little bit of research into rhinos,
and they do indeed live a solitary lifestyle, only the
mother and child having a bond. What's the full story
behind the horn thing?

I have excerpts from both versions for you to compare.

-fk

================================
(from access to insight)
Translator's note: The Indian rhinoceros, unlike the
African, has only one horn. Hence the recurrent image
here. As noted under I.1, there is evidence suggesting
that the verses here were originally separate poems,
composed on separate occasions, and that they have
been gathered together because of their common
refrain.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renouncing violence
for all living beings,
harming not even a one,
you would not wish for offspring,
so how a companion?
Wander alone, a rhinoceros horn.

=====================================
Selected verses of the Rhinoceros Sutta from "Woven
Cadences" (Sutta Nipata), translated by E. M. Hare,
and published in Sacred Books of the Buddhists Series
by the Pali Text Society. Other verses are used in
this booklet.


Verses for Thudong-faring
From the Sutta-Nipata

Put by the rod for all that lives,
Nor harm thou anyone thereof;
Long not for son -- how then for friend?
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.

Love cometh from companionship;
In wake of love upsurges ill;
Seeing the bane that comes of love,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
In ruth for all his bosom friends,
A man, heart-chained, neglects the goal;
Seeing this fear in fellowship,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.

Tangled as crowding bamboo boughs
Is fond regard for sons and wife:
As the tall tops are tangle-free,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
The deer untethered roams the wild
Whithersoe'er it lists for food:
Seeing the liberty, wise man,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.


Casting aside the household gear,
As sheds the coral-tree its leaves,
With home-ties cut, and vigorous,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
Seek for thy friend[1] the deeply learned,
Dhamma-endued, lucid and great;
Knowing the needs, expelling doubt,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.


The heat and cold, and hunger, thirst,
Wind, sun-beat, sting of gadfly, snake:
Surmounting one and all of these,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
Crave not for tastes, but free of greed,
Moving with measured step from house
To house, support of none, none's thrall,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.


Free everywhere, at odds with none,
And well content with this and that:
Enduring dangers undismayed,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
Snap thou the fetters as the snare
By river denizen is broke:
As fire to waste comes back no more,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.


And turn thy back on joys and pains,
Delights and sorrows known of old;
And gaining poise and calm, and cleansed,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
Neglect thou not to muse apart,
'Mid things by Dhamma-faring aye;
Alive to all becomings' bane,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.


As lion, mighty-jawed and king
Of beasts, fares conquering, so thou,
Taking thy bed and seat remote,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.
Poise, amity, ruth and release
Pursue, and timely sympathy;
At odds with none in all the world,
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.

Leaving the vanities of view,
Right method won, the Way obtained:
"I know! No other is my guide!"
Fare lonely as rhinoceros.






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