All entries for Monday 03 January 2005

慧能诗的几种译法

Writing about web page http://www.yfta.net/view.asp?xxid=341

below is a collection of translation to this poem I found in other site.

1. Our body is the Bodhi-tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.

source

2. Let your body be a Buddhist tree,
Let your mind be like a bright mirror,
And often clean them all over,
Then free from dust they will be.

3. Let your body be a Buddhist tree,
And your mind a bright mirror,
And often clean them all over,
Then free from dust they will be.

4. There is no Buddhist tree at all,
And there is bright mirror nor.
Now there is nothing at all,
How could be dust any more?

5. In essence, Bodhi has no tree,
And the bright mirror does not exist,
In essence, there is not a thing,
On what then can dust be found?

6. Our body be a Bodhi tree,
Our mind a mirror bright,
Clean and polish frequently,
Let no dust alight.

7. The body is tree of Awakening,
The Mind is like a clear mirror,
At all times we must strive to polish it,
And must not let the dust collect.

8. Awakening originally has no tree,
The mirror also has no stand,

The Buddha nature is always clean and pure.
Where is the room for dust?

9.There is no Bodhi tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright,
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

source/check for detailed reference in the source website

: 03 Jan 2005 08:03 |  Tags: Zp V Academic |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A suspended review

Recommended by an athesist friend, it is interesting to find out the film is themed by the gist of Zen.

Religion believes are very often expressed by significance of animals, same to this film. The appearences of fish, frog, snake, cat and turtle are symbolic. In the Sutra, there are several reference to snake. The Taiwanese writer/scholar Li Ao used to quote the assimilation between snake and women written in the Sutra

佛经里对女人殊无好评。《毗奈那杂事》说女人有五种过失（瞋、恨、作恶、无恩、刻毒），像大黑蛇一样

He said that rarely you could find praise for women in the Sutra.. According to毗奈那杂事 ( can’t figure out its original title), women have five sins: anger, hatred, wrong, ungratefulness, acrimony, same to the big black snakes.

But in the same article, Li Ao later put forward that the Sutra has put much praise on sex. It symbolized female sexual organ as the lotus and the ‘Buddha's warrior attendant's throne for the male’s. Both are holy articles in Buddhism. Such assimilation seems to pull down the previous assimilation, by praising the organ of women.

For the case of snake, actually the boa or very big snake is often thought the antetype of the fictional Dragon. In China, snake is still nicked as ‘small dragon’ sometimes. And in another story adapted from Sutra, snake, together with the turtle and fox, is among the grateful animals. It saved its benefactor from prison. I think such reading of snake is quite different from the Bible.

to be continued…(hopefully/ plan to talk about the sin of love and marriage)

: 03 Jan 2005 07:17 |  Tags: Zp Iv Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem