Ja 147 The Story about the Red Flower
(Puppharattajātaka)
In the present one monk still longs for his former wife. The Buddha tells a story of the two of them in a previous life, and how her insistence on getting a safflower-dyed cloth resulted in his painful death, while he regretted not fulfilling her desire (full story).
1. Na-y-idaṁ dukkhaṁ, aduṁ dukkhaṁ, yaṁ maṁ tudati vāyaso,
Yaṁ Sāmā puppharattena Kattikaṁ nānubhossatī ti.
Being impaled in the air isn’t suffering, that is suffering: Sāmā with her safflowers will not enjoy the Kattika Fair.
In this connection, being impaled in the air isn’t suffering, that is suffering, whatever bodily and mental pain there is because of being stuck on a stake, like being impaled in the air on barbs Tuṇḍa normally means a beak, mouth or snout, but it is also found in compounds like saratuṇḍa, the point of an arrow, or a barb; the latter seems more appropriate here. made of copper, this is not all of my suffering, that is suffering, but that is my suffering, this is the meaning.
What is? Sāmā with her safflowers will not enjoy the Kattika Fair, my wife Piyaṅgusāmā, having dressed in safflower, having put it on, being clothed thus in a suit of safflower, having taken me with her arm round my neck, will not enjoy the occasion of the Kattika Fair, for me this is suffering, this it is that weighs on me.