Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues continues from here
AG: 26th Chorus. So then what’s the consequence of that wipe-out of pain?
“Knew all along/ That when chicken is eaten/ Rooster aint worried/ And when Rooster is eaten/Chicken aint worried’ – ( So he’s putting it down right into a barnyard, household, supermarket context).
“Because what’s there to worry/ What’s there to grow teeth/ To eat rebirth’s beginningless/ Meat of Eternal Comeback?” – (That’s really horrible. Talking about chicken craws and animal teeth)
“Because what’s there to worry/ What’s there to grow teeth/ To eat rebirth’s beginningless/ Meat of Eternal Comeback?/ For Christ Sake stop saying/ And saving your lives,/ It’s only one more hour/ Beyond your pale light/ There’s no end on all sides/ The saylessness, the sayless York/ awk ah of child/ on afternoon sidewalk” – (So he’s comparing that blank mind – the “bright blankness” here – “bright blankness” of “unsayable mind” to the “…the sayless ork/ awk ah of a child on afternoon sidewalk” – (Little kid in a baby carriage looking into vast eternity without knowing the names – he’s just discovering it and not really worried – it’s like “… when chicken is eaten/Rooster aint worried/(and) when Rooster is eaten/Chicken aint worried” – (And when Mama’s eaten, baby ain’t worried, maybe? – or something, little, little, little baby. I suppose a little baby would relate. The child next door dies, the baby won’t know, maybe?).
But anyway, beast eaten, beast forgets fast. So he’s saying human eaten, human forgets fast. (Or, some little baby – baby toy world or little ant world that a child might observe) – “Or of Hurubela Elephant Cow/ of Ant Colonies/ M’e’r y o cking/ in a moment/ of the Landscape day/ in Vast Arcadian/ PureLand – / Buddha loved all sentient beings” – (Including the ants and the Hurubela Elephant cows)
to be continued
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately twenty-five minutes in and concluding at approximately twenty-seven minutes