Showing posts with label Garden: Shore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garden: Shore. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 19, 2000

Garden: Your friend stands...


Your Friend stands on the other shore, but you never think in your mind how you may meet with Him: the BOAT is broken, and yet you sit ever upon the bank, and thus you are beaten to no purpose by the WAVES.

Where to next: the BOAT or the WAVES?


[Source: RT 74 (partial); 3.30. are dil, prem nagar kä ant na pâyâ]

Here is the full poem:

LXXIV

III. 30. are dil, prem nagar kä ant na pâyâ

  O my heart! you have not known all the secrets of this city of
    love: in ignorance you came, and in ignorance you return.
  O my friend, what have you done with this life? You have taken
    on your head the burden heavy with stones, and who is to
    lighten it for you?
  Your Friend stands on the other shore, but you never think in
    your mind how you may meet with Him:
  The boat is broken, and yet you sit ever upon the bank; and thus
    you are beaten to no purpose by the waves.
  The servant Kabîr asks you to consider; who is there that shall
    befriend you at the last?
  You are alone, you have no companion: you will suffer the
    consequences of your own deeds.


Garden: Tell me, O swan...


TELL me, O Swan, your ancient tale. From what land do you come, O Swan? To what SHORE will you FLY? Where would you take your rest, O Swan, and what do you seek?

Where to next: the TELLING or the FLIGHT... or perhaps the SHORE?


[Source: RT 12 (partial); 2.24. hamsâ, kaho purâtan vât]

swan. This is the hamsa bird, a symbol associated with ultimate reality (Brahman) and also with moksha, release from the cycle of birth and death.

Here is the full poem:

XII

II. 24. hamsâ, kaho purâtan vât

  Tell me, O Swan, your ancient tale.
  From what land do you come, O Swan? to what shore will you fly?
  Where would you take your rest, O Swan, and what do you seek?
  Even this morning, O Swan, awake, arise, follow me!
  There is a land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule: where the
    terror of Death is no more.
  There the woods of spring are a-bloom, and the fragrant scent "He
    is I" is borne on the wind:
  There the bee of the heart is deeply immersed, and desires no
    other joy.