Poems in Tranlation

8/11/2019 Poems in Tranlation

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2003 D. Brodley 1

Han Shan Poem #2011

Alone above the peak it rounds,

Han Shan Moon;

Lighting up the crystal sky,

it shows, theres not a singlething.

A natural wish fulfilling jewel,

yet risen, behind this body too,

Behind self-graspingmountains

of psycho-physicality.


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2003 D. Brodley 3

By Pema Karpo

Upon the lake of this world, the night blooming lily looks down from her stem,

Grown close to the water clarifying moon,her dearest friend.

I am the moon who must depart to wander the hours, day and night;Circling the world, I will return, here, to this southern land, tomorrow,

And, sending forth white light, joyful to see, for the night blooming lilies in their grove,I am the yogi who has mastered the dark,

protecting the lily pond from hailstorms.

In this high meadowed valley, the lovely ornament flowers in blue;Have grown close to their friend, little tiger

bee.The cold winds arrived, time to take up my things;Having rounded the ends of the forest,


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4 Translated Antipodes

in a moment here to meadow landvalleyIll return

To this oases of Ornament-flowers, filling itwith the buzzing roar of my song;

Protecting you from hoarfrost, with fog brought from southern cloud

lands.

The three valleys of Lhodrakso pleasant aplace for theWandering-Water River

Grown close to their friend, the yogi White Lotus.The hour to act has come, and White Lotus with his things, must depart,Rounding the lands of Lho and Tsang in a

moment,

Ill return to this wondrous homeland,To set in motion the pure and holy dharmateachings,

offering this gift, so I might reside,Your rare-and-supreme, lama, protecting you from karmic obstacles.

Pemakarpo (White-lotus)


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2003 D. Brodley 5

NIEN-NUCHIAO1

Tune: The delights of nu chiao

Flowing east, the mighty river wavesemblems of a thousand generations swept away.Lord Chous Red Cliff west, people say,from the Old Fort, dates to the Three Kingdomage.

It thrusts into the air, above the tumbled rocks;

surges roar, dashed upon the shores;rolling drifts of snow, by the thousands,brush strokes flow into vivid river mountains;The myriad heroes who once were!

The young Lord then, I now recall,was newly married to the young Miss Chiao,Silken capped, held a fan of feathers,reminiscent of his valorous features.

Amid the talk and laughter,his enemies ships a smoke,and in the drifting ashesMy rising thoughts, for the country of yoregrey hairs sprouted before their time,which could kindle a quixotic smile;

But, isnt this life so like a dream, a cup of wine moon on the river

To which Ill pour out my libations.

1Reworking of trans. by Chu Tu-kao in Anthology of Chinese Literature1965


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Wang Wei c. 700-761

L Zha

In the empty mountains

no one seen;

Yet echoed voices

were heard.

Receeding beams entered deep

the wood;

Returned upon the blue-green

moss


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A Farewell

To Inaba I go Farewell!

To its mountains thick with pine.

But if only you should pine for me,

To you, I'll return as once youllsee!

Yukihira(Kokin Shu VIII)


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2003 D. Brodley 9

Lotus Dew

The lotus blossom is so true,Unsullied are its petals blue,By precious jewels deceiving,

Those diamond dew drops seeming.1

Henjo (Kokin Shu V.1)

1The lotus represents the unsullied truth; the diamond- like dew, the things of thisworld which dazzle us with their splendor but turn out to be as ephemeral as dew.Henjo summerizes the entirety of Buddhist thought in four simple stanzas.


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Couplets concerning the experience ofecstasis in high contemplation:

I entered into no-knowingand remained there in unknowingthe totality of knowledge transcending.

Into the unknown, I entered,yet there, I saw myself seeing,

not knowing where I ventured,great things was I understanding;I dare not speak what I was feeling,that for me there was no knowing,the totality of knowledge transcending.

Of peace and also pietythat perfect knowledge was,in profoundest singularity,at no distance held, it was;

something so secret, o it does,leave me so, that Im stammering,the totality of knowledge transcending.

It was so very whelming,so drawn inward and absorbing,that in my very sensingwas of my senses, totally deprivingand to my spirit offering,an understanding without understanding,the totality of knowledge transcending.


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2003 D. Brodley 11

He who arrives there, verily,is released from self; for,all that one knows primarily,he now so does deplore,his knowledge so does it soar,that left without an understanding,the totality of knowledge transcending.

The extent to which hes risen,the less his mind can sight,the more the cloud does darkenthat cloud which lit the night;1

whoever knows this in this light,remains in the ever unknowingthe totality of knowledge transcending.

The knowing in unknowingso deeply whelms

that wise men in debatingcan never penetrate ittheir seeing can never reach itthe non-understanding understanding,the totality of knowledge transcending.

And it is an utter excellence,which is the sum of every knowledge,

1Richard Rolle in The Contra Amatores Mundi states: But also, as is said in otherplaces, He makes darkness his cover (Ps.xvii. 12), and He speaks in the pillar ofcloud (Ps.xcviii.7); because though what is felt is very delightful; still what is seen isdark and cloudy (Rolle, Richard of Hampole, The Contra Amarores Mundi ofRichard Rolle of Hampole, ed. and trans. Paul F. Theiner [Berkely: UC. Press,1968], p.174).


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neither our faculties, nor our science,has the power to grasp this knowing;for he who penetrates himself,in unknowing, is his knowingin his being ever transcending.

And if you should like to perceive,what constitutes this sum of sciencesin the highest sense to conceiveof this, the divine essences,it is the work of his clemenciesto leave us no way to understand,what every knowledge does transcend.


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2003 D. Brodley 13

My Truest Treasure So Traighterly Taken (updatedfrom Old English)

My truest treasure so traiterly taken,So bitterly bound with biting bands;How soon of thy servants was thou forsaken,

And loathsomely for my love hit with their hands.

The well of my weal so wrongously weighed,So pulled out of prison to Pilate at prime;Their stings and their strikes full solemnly you staid;When they shot in your sight baith saliva and slime.

My hope, of my health, so hastened to be hanged,So charged with your cross and coroned with thorn;Full seared to your heart, your steps they harangued,

Me thinks your back burdened breaks, it bends forelorn.

My salve, of my sore so sorryful in sight,So naked and nailed your back, on the road;Full hideously hanged; They heaved thee on high,Let thee be set in stone all staked and there stood.

My dear worthy darling so doleful a sightSo staightly upright strained on the rood;

For your mickle meekness your mercy and might,


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2003 D. Brodley 15

Kabir

51st Love Song

Peace-lovers,Why struggle in the darkness looming?Here in the body, blossoms r blooming.Here the good creator does dwell.Here the seven seas up well.Here the plethora of stars.Here, enbodied, jewels there are.Here, the tester of the fools;Here, a boundless music pools.Here, the source of lifes revealed;Kabir says,Oh my humble friends, abide,By this guru within who guides.


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Nepali Song

Youre just like me,Oh moon!

Such a liar;

You and meSobbing, deep deep withinWhile laughing, in an outward show;

There's only one difference between us:Your tears are making the dew,

And mine are making this song.


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2003 D. Brodley 17

Saraha

To drive away impurities, from this dream, I find,When surrounded by the Gurus word,

where to hide Oh mind?

Curious the nature of illusion,self and not-self seen,This water bubble world,self-void in freedom clearly gleaned.


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Arya Deva

The moon has set,Her rays completely disappeared

So too, with mindSunk in ultimate freedom,Eronious rays completely vanished.


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2003 D. Brodley 19

XXVII. Song of Busuku (Bengali)

The lotus is in full bloom this midnight,And thirty-two Yoginis, their limbs de-

light.

The moon was lead down the Avadhuti,The jeweled word speaks simultaneity.

The moon up to Nirvana was ferried;The Lotus up, the channel, to the poolwas carried.

Without characteristic ecstatic cessation,

Those whore aware of it their awakened.

Knowing union I awoke, I Busuku say,In spontaneous freedom great ecstacy, Iplay.


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Seng-chou (example of an early chainsentence)

Being beyond apprehension,

phenomena, though unreal,are a reality.Manifesting unobstructedly,phenomena, are a realitythat is unreal.

Phenomena, are unreal,though they comprise reality,but, are different from really beingsomething:

Manifesting as a reality,they are not real, still they are different from the unreal.


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2003 D. Brodley 21

Li Bai

Observing my wine;UnawareNight flowers

filled my gown;Drunk, I rose,walked the moon stream;Birdsgone,peoplefew.


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Jang Ji (750 A.D.)

Moon falls crow callsTo sky filled

with snow sprecks.

Along river, Maples.Sadly I faced,

the fishermans lanternWhos nodded off.

City Soochous

urban wallsAnd beyond, O Cold-Mt. temple

In midnight rings Whose bellsSound, found my wandering craft.


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2003 D. Brodley 23

Lui Che (147-87 B.C. by the Emperor Wuof Han

I hear the rustiling of her silken robes,

In our marbled courtyardunswept;Alone and cold in my empty roomMoving leaves piled up the door,Yet, I looked to find her there;How terribly sad must I be?


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Longchenpa

In the mirror of mind, from bliss to pain,As the sport of awareness, the yogintrains.

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Poems in Tranlation