Allen Ginsberg on Dharma Poetics continues from here
There is one very charming poem by Henry King which is almost the exact parallel of a passage in Gampopa‘s “Jewel Ornament of Liberation” [Editorial note – most recently, in 2017, translated, by Ken Holmes, as “Ornament of Precious Liberation”] which is, in itself, a traditional repeat of an old ancient Buddhism simile – “Like a rose, a dew drop, a bubble, a petal, a dream, a mist, a cloud....” Does anybody know that passage? Well, you’re familiar with it, I think, from early sutras, but it’s also repeated in Gampopa in very perfect form. So there’s a charming poem called “Sic Vita” by Henry King, whose work was published in 1657, actually.
“Like to the falling star/, Or as the flights of eagles are,/ Or like the fresh spring’s gaudy hue,/ Or silver drops of morning dew,/ Or like a wind that chafes the flood,/ Or bubbles which on water stood/. Even such a man who’s borrowed light/ Is straight called in and paid tonight./ The wind blows out, the bubble dies,/ The spring entombed in autumn lies,/ The dew drops up/ The star is shot,/ The flight is past, and man forgot.”.
It’s a real succinct little lyric rhyme similar to the Gampopa statement.
But one part is really accurate. In some ways a little bit more substantial than the classical Buddhist statement – “or bubbles which on water stood” – That’s quite pictorial actually – a bubble standing on water. So you have not only the notion (or) the reference to a bubble but you also have the picture of a bubble and its nature standing on water – “bubbles which on water stood.” If you think in terms of precision of detail – Zen precision of detail – that construction of a bubble standing on water is really amazing and simple. Totally simple and totally clear – pictorially clear, visually clear. So detailed that it no longer has to have its great philosophic meaning. It’s right there. It’s eternal in its spot there standing on the water, so to speak.
to be continued