The Blessed One:
"mahaaraaja, imassa vipaako neva tava, na mama kaale bhavissati.
O great king / of this / ripening / neither / your / nor / my / in time / will be
Your majesty, the outcome of this [dream] will come neither in your time nor mine.
anaagate pana adhammikaana.m kapa.naraajuuna.m adhammikaana~n ca
manussaana.m kaale
in future / but / of unrighteous ones / of vicious rulers / of unrighteous ones / and /
of humans / in time
But in the future, in the time of vicious rulers who are unrighteous, and people who
are unrighteous,
loke viparivattamaane kusale ossanne, akusale ussanne,
when world / when declining / when skill / when decreased / when unskill / when
increased
When the world is declining, when skill is on the decrease, when unskill is on the
increase,
lokassa parihaayanakaale devo na sammaa vassissati,
of world / in time of deterioration / cloud / not / rightly / will rain
in the time of the deterioration of the world, the cloud[s] will not rain properly,
meghapaadaa pacchijjissanti, sassaani milaayissanti, dubbhikkha.m bhavissati,
feet of clouds / will be cut short / crops / will wither / famine / will be
the feet of the clouds will be severed, the crops will wither, there will be famine.
vassitukaamaa viya catuuhi disaahi meghaa u.t.thahitvaa
wishing to rain / like / from four / from directions / clouds / having arisen
Clouds, having appeared from the four directions, as though wishing to rain,
itthikaahi aatape pattha.taana.m viihi-aadiina.m temanabhayena antopavesitakaale
by women / in the sunshine / of the spread out / of the [crops] such as paddy /
because of fear of wettening / in the time of [their] having been brought inside
in the time when the crops such as paddy, [that were] spread out in the sun, have
been brought inside by the women because of fear [they would get] wet,
purisesu kuddaalapi.takahatthesu aa.libandhanatthaaya nikkhantesu
when the men / with spades and baskets in hands / for the sake of building dikes /
when departed
[and] when the men have set out with spades and baskets in their hands to build
dikes,
vassanaakaara.m dassetvaa gajjitvaa vijjulataa nicchaaretvaa
raining pose / having shown / having thundered / lightning / having emitted
[the clouds] having shown a raining pose, having thundered, having flashed lightning,
te usabhaa viya ayujjhitvaa avassitvaava palaayissanti.
those / bulls / like / not having fought / not having rained / at all / will flee
will flee without having rained at all, like those bulls [who fled] without having fought.
ayam'etassa vipaako.
this / of that / ripening
This [will be] the outcome of that [dream].
tuyha.m pana tappaccayaa koci antaraayo natthi,
for you / but / because of that condition / whatever / danger / there is not
But there is no danger at all for you on account of that condition.
anaagata.m aarabbha di.t.tho supino esa,
future / concerning / seen / dream / that
That dream seen [by you] concerns the future.
braahma.naa pana attano jiivitavutti.m nissaaya kathayi.msuu" ti
brahmins / but / of self / life-mode / dependent on / they spoke
As for the brahmins, they spoke [merely] to support their own livelihood.
eva.m satthaa supinassa nipphatti.m kathetvaa aaha
thus / Teacher / of dream / fulfilment / having related / said
The Teacher, having thus described the dream's fulfilment, said:
"dutiya.m kathehi, mahaaraajaa" ti.
second / relate! / O great king
Describe the second [dream], your majesty.
The Blessed One: Your majesty, the outcome of this dream
will come neither in your time nor in mine, but in the
future, in the time of unrighteous vicious rulers and
unrighteous people, when the world is declining, with skill
on the decrease and unskill on the increase. In this time of
the world's deterioration the rain will not fall properly,
the feet of the clouds will be severed, the crops will wither,
and there will be famine.
Clouds will appear from the four directions as though
wishing to rain. When the crops such as paddy that were
spread out in the sun have been brought indoors by the women
for fear they will become damp, and when the men have set
out with spades and baskets in their hands to build dikes, the
clouds will show a raining mien, will thunder and flash
lightning, but then will flee without having rained at all,
like those bulls who retreated without fighting at all. This
will be the outcome of that dream. But there will be no
danger at all for you on that account, for the dream that
you have seen concerns the future. As for the brahmins, they
merely spoke to support their own livelihood.
The Teacher, having thus described the dream's fulfilment,
said: "Your majesty, tell me of the second dream."
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Comments
meghapaada: 'feet of the clouds' -- the term is not found
anywhere else. I have followed Chalmers and the Mahamakut
Thai translators who both render it literally. I am not
really sure what "meghapaadaa pacchijjissanti" (var.
chijjissanti) is supposed to mean. In some Sufi poetry
clouds are anthropomorphized and rain is conceived as fluid
seeping out of the blisters on their feet. But did Indians
ever use such a trope? A more appealing possibility is that
meghapaada is a cognate of the Sanskrit meghaaspada, meaning
'region of the clouds' or 'atmosphere'. If we then follow
the variant reading 'chijjissanti' then the prophecy would
refer to the atmosphere being severed from the earth.
kapa.naraajuuna.m: 'of vicious rulers'. Chalmers: 'of
niggardly kings'. Thai: 'of orphan kings' (phra raatchaa
phuu kamphraa -- but what on earth is an 'orphan king' ? Or
rather, what's the problem with a king being an orphan ?).
I have translated in line with the A`nguttara .Tiikaa
(Vera~njasuttava.n.nanaa), in which the word kapa.napuriso
is defined as gu.navirahitataaya diinamanusso, "wretched man
on account of his bereftness of virtue".
For an expanded account of the theme of unrighteous rulers
and subjects as a cause of drought see the Paloka and
Adhammika Suttas and their Atthakathaas, as mentioned in my
last post. Also of interest is a 19th century treatise on
political science, the _Raajadhammasa`ngaha_ by the Yaw
Mingyi U Bo Hlaing. This has been translated into English by
L.E. Bagshawe (Sape U Publishing House, 1979).