Dantikā

Leaving my day’s meditation
on Vulture’s Peak Mountain,
I saw an elephant on the riverbank
having just come up from his bath.

A man, taking a pole with a hook,
asked the elephant, “Give me your foot.”
The elephant presented his foot,
and the man mounted him.

Seeing a wild beast so tamed,
submitting to human control,
my mind became serene:
that is why I’ve gone to the forest!