Even by rain of coins one cannot be satisfied in sensual desires.
The wise man, having understood that sensual desires give little pleasure and are painful,
[continued in DhP 187]

na kahāpaṇa+vassena    titti     kāmesu   vijjati
|          |              |            |            |            |
neg. N.m.        N.m.     N.f.       N.m.   V.pas.in.
|          |          Ins.Sg. Nom.Sg. Loc.Pl. 3.Sg.pres.
|          |________|            |_______|           |
|_________|_______________|__________|
         |____|                           |
             |_________________|

List of Abbreviations

appa+assādā  dukkhā  kāmā      iti  viññāya paṇḍito
|            |             |           |          |        |            |
Adj. Adj.m.    Adj.m.    N.m.   part. V.ger.     N.m.
|      Nom.Pl. Nom.Pl. Nom.Pl.   |        |       Nom.Sg.
|_______|            |            |         |        |_______|
       |__________|            |         |               |
                |____________|         |               |
                             |__________|               |
                                       |_____________|

na, neg.: not.

kahāpaṇavassena: kahāpaṇavassa-, N.m.: rain of coins. It is a compound of:
    kahāpaṇa-, N.m.: a copper coin, ancient Indian currency.
    vassa-, N.m.: rain, shower.
Ins.Sg. = kahāpaṇavassena.

titti: titti-, N.f.: satisfaction. Nom.Sg. = titti.

kāmesu: kāma-, N.m.: sense-pleasure, sense desire. Loc.Pl. = kāmesu.

vijjati, V.: exists, is found. The verb root is vid- (to find). 3.Sg.pas.in.pres. = vijjati.

List of Abbreviations

appassādā: appassāda-, Adj.: of little enjoyment, giving little pleasure. It is a compound of:
    appa-, Adj.: few, little.
    assāda-, N.m.: taste, sweetness, enjoyment, satisfaction. It is derived from the verb root sad- (to taste) with the prefix ā- (close relation).
Euphonic combination: appa- + assāda- = appassāda-.
Nom.Pl.m. = appassādā.

dukkhā: dukkha-, Adj.: unpleasant, painful, difficult. Nom.Pl.m. = dukkhā.

kāmā: kāma-, N.m.: pleasure, enjoyment, sense-desire. Nom.Pl. = kāmā.

iti, part.: a particle, symbolizing the end of direct speech. In English this is expressed by quotation marks. Sometimes it is written as ti.

viññāya, V.ger.: having understood. The verb root is ñā- (to know) with the prefix vi- (out).

paṇḍito: paṇḍita-, N.m.: wise man, learned man. Nom.Sg. = paṇḍito.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two syntactically separate sentences. They are:
    1) na kahāpaṇavassena titti kāmesu vijjati (even by rain of coins one cannot be satisfied in sensual desires, lit.: even by rain of coins there doesn't exist a satisfaction in sensual desires). The subject of this sentence is the noun titti (satisfaction, nominative singular). It has an attribute, the noun kāmesu (in sensual desires, locative plural). The verb is vijjati (is found, 3^rd person, singular, passive, indicative, present tense). It is negated by the negative particle na (not). The verb has an attribute, the compound kahāpaṇavassena (by rain of coins, instrumental singular).
    2) appassādā dukkhā kāmā iti viññāya paṇḍito (the wise man, having understood, that sensual desires give little pleasure and are painful). This can be further analysed into the main sentence a) and the direct speech b):
    a) viññāya paṇḍito (the wise man, having understood that). The subject is the noun paṇdito (wise man, nominative singular). The verb is in gerund, viññāya (having understood).
    b) appassādā dukkhā kāmā iti (sensual desires give little pleasure and are painful). The subject is the noun kāmā (sensual desires, nominative plural). It has two attributes, the compound appassādā (giving little pleasure, nominative plural) and the adjective dukkhā (painful, nominative plural). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". The particle iti (symbolizes the end of the direct speech) connects the clause to the main sentence.

    At the Jetavana monastery there was a young monk. His teacher sent him to another monastery to practice meditation. While he was away, his father died and left some money for him with his brother. When the monk returned, he found out about this, but decided to continue living as a monk and told his brother to keep the money for himself.
    Later, however, he began to regret, started to imagine his comfortable life as a layman with that amount of money. He became dissatisfied with his life as a monk and began loosing weight. Other monks persuaded him to seek help from the Buddha.
    The Buddha told the monk this verse (and the following one, see DhP 187), saying that there is simply never enough money to satisfy the hunger. He told him the story of a king named Mandhātu, who had been a Universal Monarch a long time ago. He was reborn in Tāvatimsa heaven and enjoyed immense riches and power for a long time. Then he started to wish he were the only ruler of Tāvatimsa instead of Sakka, the king of the gods. Immediately he died and fell down from his heavenly state.
    The young monk decided to continue his life as a monk and strived diligently to attain the Awakenment.

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

na
kahāpaṇavassena
kahāpaṇa
vassena
titti
kāmesu
vijjati
appassādā
appa
assādā
dukkhā
kāmā
iti
viññāya
paṇḍito