In the past I was guarding my person

So diligently that I forgot myself;

I used to look at turbid water,

Till I mistook the clear pool,

Taking it as a freak.

Going where certain customs prevail,

I followed those customs without doubt.

Once I was walking about in the forest

And forgot myself among the clearings

That was the cause of my coming across

A hermit who had forgotten tracklessly

The true art of the human contacts,

Preserving his virtuously cultivated person

To a fault, I guessed.

He taught me the method of going through

Thick and thin, fire and water, so long

As he had been through the mill himself

To know all the tricks as the palm

The local forester, nevertheless,thought

That it was me who brought fire

And flood on their lands and hence

For his reproaches. . .

This is the reason why from that time on

I have avoided all groves, woodlands

And forests inhabited by ascetic recluses,