Enlightenment

अनेकजातिसंसारं, सन्धाविस्सं अनिब्बिसं।
गहकारकं गवेसन्तो, दुक्खा जाति पुनप्पुनं॥

गहकारक दिट्ठोसि, पुन गेहं न काहसि।
सब्बा ते फासुका भग्गा, गहकूटं विसङ्खतं।
विसङ्खारगतं चित्तं, तण्हानं खयमज्झगा॥

This is the Buddha's exclamation on attaining enlightenment, in Pali (written above in the Devanagari script), from The Dhammapada, Ch. 11, "Old Age", 153-54.

Read about the life of the Buddha here.

Anekajatisamsaram sandhavissam anibbisam
gahakarakam gavesanto dukkha jati punappunam.

Gahakaraka! Ditthosi, puna geham na kahasi
sabba te phasuka bhagga gahakutam visankhatam
visankharagatam cittam tanhanam khayamajjhaga.

Which means:

I, who have been seeking the builder of this house, failing to attain Enlightenment which would enable me to find him, have wandered through innumerable births in samsara. To be born again and again is, indeed, dukkha!

Oh house-builder! You are seen, you shall build no house again. All your rafters are broken, your roof-tree is destroyed. My mind has reached the unconditioned; the end of craving has been attained.

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Hear / download a guide to singing the Pali verses here.

Sir Edwin Arnold describes the Buddha's enlightenment in Light of Asia:

... Thus Life's thirst quenches itself
With draughts which double thirst, but who is wise
Tears from his soul this Trishna, feeds his sense
No longer on false shows, files his firm mind
To seek not, strive not, wrong not; bearing meek
All ills which flow from foregone wrongfulness,
And so constraining passions that they die
Famished; till all the sum of ended life -
The Karma - all that total of a soul
Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had,
The 'Self' it wove - with woof of viewless time,
Crossed on the warp invisible of acts -
The outcome of him on the Universe,
Grows pure and sinless; either never more
Needing to find a body and a place,
Or so informing what fresh frame it takes
In new existence that the new toils prove
Lighter and lighter not to be at all,
Thus "finishing the Path;" free from Earth's cheats;
Broken from ties - from Upâdânas - saved
From whirling on the wheel; aroused and sane
As is a man wakened from hateful dreams.
Until - greater than Kings, than Gods more glad! -
The aching craze to live ends, and life glides -
Lifeless - to nameless quiet, nameless joy,
Blessed NIRVANA - sinless, stirless rest -
That change which never changes!

Image: Enlightenment Scene, Temple painting in Bodhgaya, India, by Marianna Rydvald.