Ní iompóidh sé go deo
Ina rud eile.
Ní athraíonn nithe mar sin –
Ní thagann aois ar an óige,
Ní thagann aois ar an aois.
Dá n-athródh rud amháin go rud eile –
Bheadh bainne ina im
Nó ní bainne a bheadh san im.
Dá mbeadh lorg rud éigin ann,
Bheadh lorg an fholúis ann.
Mura mbeadh lorg aon ní ann,
Ní bheadh lorg an fholúis ann.
Is é a deir na Búdaí ná éirí as tuairimí
a bheith agat, sin is folús ann.
Níl leigheas in ann dóibh siúd
A chreideann san fholús.
Nagarjuna
Change
If something has an essence--How can it ever change
Into anything else?
A thing doesn't change into something else--
Youth does not age,
Age does not age.
If something changed into something else--
Milk would be butter
Or butter would not be milk.
Were there a trace of something,
There would be a trace of emptiness.
Were there no trace of anything,
There would be no trace of emptiness.
Buddhas say emptiness
Is relinquishing opinions.
Believers in emptiness
Are incurable
Nagarjuna
English version by Stephen Batchelor
Original Language Sanskrit
from Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime, by Nagarjuna / Translated by Stephen Batchelor