Dhammapada verse 47
Chapter 4, Flowers (Pupphavagga) · verses 44–59
“As a mighty flood sweeps off a sleeping village, death steals away a man even as he gathers flowers, his mind caught up in them.”
Pupphāni heva pacinantaṁ, byāsattamanasaṁ naraṁ; Suttaṁ gāmaṁ mahoghova, maccu ādāya gacchati.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 47 mean?
Verse 47 belongs to chapter 4, Flowers (Pupphavagga), which gathers verses 44–59 on flowers, and what they stand for. It is filed under mind & intention, impermanence & death. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 46 and verse 48 are part of the same passage.
Sixteen verses that use flowers as their working image — garlands made from a heap, a blossom that falls, a fragrance that travels with the wind or does not. The chapter moves from that image to speech, to the person who gathers what is worth gathering, and to the end of the body. It also holds the verse on knowing the body as foam and a mirage.
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