Aṇguttara Nikāya
Catukka Nipāta
XXIII: Sucarita Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Fours
Chapter XXIII: Good Conduct
Sutta 230
Kavi Suttaṃ
Poets[1]
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1] Thus have I heard:
On a certain occasion the Exalted One was staying near Sāvatthī.
Then the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Yes, lord," they replied,
and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, there are these four poets.
What four?
The imaginative,
the traditional,
the didactic
and the extempore poet.
These are the four.'
[1] Possibly inserted to make up the ten suttas of each vagga. Cf. Dial. i, 22 n.; Buddhist India, 184; DA. i, 95; SA. i, 286; UdA. 205. They are as follows:
Cintā-kavī, 'he who composes after thinking.'
Suta-kavī, 'who writes down what he has heard said - e.g., myths and legends.'
Attha-kavī, 'he who writes of the meaning of a thing.'
Paṭibhāna-kavī, 'who writes of his own invention, like the elder Vangīsa.' Comy.
