Jataka 275
Rucira Jātaka
The Pretty Crane
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
Once again for reasons that are hard to know this story is the same as the previous one (Jātaka 274) and Jātaka 42.
In the published PTS edition of this story there is no title (!). This is just another example of how the PTS editions of the Jātakas are not the best when it comes to proofreading. I would love to be able to go back in time and ask the translators and editors how these kinds of things happened. You would also like to know why the redactors of the Jātaka literature added this story three times. These imperfections are part of the fun of working with this literature.
“Who is this pretty crane?” The Master told this story at Jetavana. It is about a greedy monk. The two stories are just the same as the last. And these are the verses:
Figure: The Greedy Crow is Caught!
“Who is this pretty crane, and why
Does he in my crow’s basket lie?
An angry bird, my friend the crow!
This is his nest, I’d have you know!”
“Do you not know me, friend, indeed?
Together we were used to feed!
I would not do as I was told,
So now I’m plucked, as you behold.”
“You'll come to grief again, I know—
It is your nature to do so.
When people make a dish of meat
’Tis not for little birds to eat.”
As before, the Bodhisatta said, “I can’t live here anymore,” and he flew away.
When the Master had ended this discourse, he taught the Four Noble Truths, at the conclusion of which the greedy monk attained the fruit of non-returning. The he identified the birth, “The greedy monk in those days was the crow, and I was the pigeon.”
