Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues continues from here
AG: Then he said, 21st Chorus:
“Not very musical, the Western ear/ – No lyres in the pines/compare with the palms” – (No lyres in the western pines of the Sierra Mountains or the Rockies compare with the Palms of Jerusalem)
“Not very musical, the Western ear/ – No lyres in the pines/compare with the palms/ Western Sorcery is Sad Science -/ Mechanics go mad/ In Nirvanas of hair/ and black oil/and rags of dust/ and lint of flint/ Hard iron fools raging in the gloom..” – (which is a good description of the Spenglerian, Faustian, iron-hard, mechanic man)
“Mechanics go mad/ In Nirvanas of hair/ and black oil/ and rags of dust..” – (Perfect picture of a garage. Frantic mechanic in an oily garage)
“But here’s East” – (the alternative) – “But here’s East, Cambodian/ Saloons of Air/ Blakean Angel Town/ Grove of Beardy Trees/ & Bearded Emptily -/ Expressing Patriarchal/ Authority/ To us listeners/ Of the Holy See” – (S-E-E) – “Saw,/ said,/ Saved/ Saved my Bhikkucitas”)
Ferries arrived in the last poem. “Saved my Bhikkucitas” in this poem. Ferry would be the great ferry vehicle – the vehicle ferry man, the Tathagata or Buddha that ferries you across the ocean of Samsara or existence to the shore of enlightenment. “Bhikkucitas” – the Mexican is “papa” or “daddy”- “papacito“, little daddy. Or Peter.. Petercita, little Peter. Or perro, perrocito. You have a little perrocito, you have a little doggie. [Editorial note – actually a small dog would be perito] – Perrocito. Like doggie instead of dog.
Student: Sounds like dysentery!
AG: Huh?
Student: Sounds like dysentery!
AG: Pardon me? Pardon me?
Peter Orlovsky: He thought you had dysentery if you had perrocita.
AG: No, those are parasititas. There’s a double diminutive. Diminutive-cita. Diminutive would be like Allen-y, or Joey instead of Joe. Joey is the diminutive or the familiar name.
And then in Mexican Spanish they also have “I speak poco Mexicano“, a little Mexican.
I speak pocito, just a little, little bit. I speak pocotito, a little, little, little bit. A little little bit.
So he’s saying Bhikkhu. A bhikkhu is a Buddhist monk – “Saved my Bhikkucitas”
– ( “Saved my little Bhikkus”. “I saved.” or, “They are saved, my little Bhikkucitas”)
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately fifty-eight-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately sixty-one minutes in
“No, those are parasititas. There’s a double diminutive. Diminutive-cita. Diminutive would be like Allen-y, or Joey instead of Joe. Joey is the diminutive or the familiar name.”
Ginsberg was that adult in a room full of adults who didn’t lower himself to answer the question of a child with, “Because I said so.” How refreshing, but unsurprising of this man with the beautiful spirit.