Japanese Buddhist Proverbs
187
68.—Oni no nyōbo ni kijin.
A devil takes a goblin to wife.[1]
69.—Onna no ké ni wa dai-zō mo tsunagaru.
With one hair of a woman you can tether even a great elephant.
70.—Onna wa Sangai ni iyé nashi.
Women have no homes of their own in the Three States of Existence.
71.—Oya no ingwa ga ko ni mukuü.
The karma of the parents is visited upon the child.[2]
72.—Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu.
The fallen blossom never returns to the branch.[3]
- ↑ Meaning that a wicked man usually marries a wicked woman.
- ↑ Said of the parents of crippled or deformed children. But the popular idea here expressed is not altogether in accord with the teachings of the higher Buddhism.
- ↑ That which has been done never can be undone: the past cannot be recalled.—This proverb is an abbreviation of the longer Buddhist text: Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu; ha-kyō futatahi terasazu: “The fallen blossom never returns to the branch; the shattered mirror never again reflects.”
