A fool does not realize when he is committing bad deeds.
The stupid person is tormented by his own deeds just as if burned by fire.

atha  papani kammani karaj    balo      na     bujjhati
|             |           |           |            |          |            |
Adv.  Adj.n.    N.n.    Adj.m.     N.m.   neg.   V.act.in.
|        Acc.Pl. Acc.Pl. Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg.  |     3.Sg.pres.
|             |______|           |            |           |______|
|                   |_________|            |                |
|                            |___________|_________|
|                                       |_____|
|________________________|

List of Abbreviations

sehi    kammehi dummedho aggi+daddho  va    tappati
|               |              |            |         |          |          |
Pron.n.  N.n.        N.m.     N.m. Adj.m.  pron. V.act.in.
Ins.Pl.  Ins.Pl.     Nom.Sg.    |    Nom.Sg.   |     3.Sg.pres.
|________|               |           |_____|          |           |
        |                      |                |________|           |
        |                      |_____________|                   |
        |___________________|_________________|
                        |__________|

atha, Adv.: then.

papani: papa-, Adj.: evil, wrong. Acc.Pl.n. = papani.

kammani: kamma-, N.n.: deed, action. Derived from the verb kar- (to do). Acc.Pl. = kammani.

karaj: karont- (or karant-), Adj.: doing. It is an a.pr.p. of the verb root kar- (to do).
Nom.Sg.m. = karaj.

balo: bala-, Adj.: childish, young. As an N.m.: "like a child", fool, ignorant person. Nom.Sg. = balo.

na, neg.: not.

bujjhati, V.: realizes, understands. The verb root is budh- (tu understand). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = bujjhati.

sehi: sa-, Pron.: own, one's own. Ins.Pl.n. = sehi.

List of Abbreviations

kammehi: kamma-, N.n.: deed, action. Derived from the verb kar- (to do). Ins.Pl. = kammehi.

dummedho: dummedha-, Adj.: stupid. Derived from the word medha-, N.f.: wisdom, intelligence, by adding the prefix du- (lacking something, away from). The double m is due to the euphonic combination (du- + medha- = dummedha-). Nom.Sg.m. = dummedho.

aggidaddho: aggidaddha-, Adj.: burned by fire. It is a compound of:
    aggi-, N.n.: fire.
    daddha-,: Adj.: burned. It is a p.p. of the verb root dah- (to burn).
Nom.Sg.m. = aggidaddho.

va, part.: as, like.

tappati, V.: to be tormented, to be consumed by remorse. Pass. of tap- (to be hot, to burn). 3.Sg.pas.in.pres. = tappati.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two syntactically separate sentences. They are:
    1) atha papani kammani karaj balo na bujjhati (a fool does not realize when he is committing bad deeds).The subject is the noun balo (fool, nominative singular). It has an attribute, the active present participle karaj (doing, nominative singular). This word has the noun kammani (deeds, accusative plural) as an attribute and that word in turn has the adjective papani (bad, accusative plural) as an attribute. The verb is bujjhati (understands, 3^rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It is negated by the negative particle na (not). The adverb atha (then) serves only for metrical purposes.
    2) sehi kammehi dummedho aggidaddho va tappati (the stupid person is tormented by his own deeds just as if burned by fire). The subject is the adjective dummedho (stupid, nominative singular). It has a dependent clause, aggidaddho va (like burned by fire). Here the subject is the compound aggidaddho (burned by fire, nominative singular). It is connected to the subject of the main sentence by the particle va (like). The verb is tappati (is tormented, 3^rd person, singular, passive, indicative, present tense). It has an attribute, the noun kammehi (by deeds, instrumental plural) with its attribute, the pronoun sehi (by [his] own, instrumental plural).

    Venerable Moggallana once went on an alms-round with Venerable Lakkhana. On the way from a certain hill he smiled as if he saw something strange. When they were back at the monastery, Lakkhana asked him about this incident.
    Moggalana said that he saw a ghost in the form of a snake, being burned by flames. The Buddha told them that he also saw that particular ghost and revealed to them his story.
    A long time ago there was a thief who repeatedly burned a house of a certain man. Not satisfied with that he also set fire to a monastery, donated by that man. As a result of these deeds, he was reborn as that ghost-snake, burned by flames.
    At the end the Buddha added this verse, saying that even though a fool does not realize evilness of his actions, the consequences will certainly reach him.

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

atha
papani
kammani
karaj
balo
na
bujjhati
sehi
kammehi
dummedho
aggidaddho
aggi
daddho
va
tappati