An Inscription on Buddha's Shadow (by Hui Yuan) - part 2

This is a continuation of a poem I began translating yesterday by the monk Hui Yuan in 4th century China.  It was composed originally as an inscription for a painting of the Buddha's shadow that Hui had commissioned to hang in a meditation cave near by his monastery.  (You can read the first part of my translation as well as a bit more background about the painting and the poem here.) 

These verses strike me as a powerful endorsement for abstract art of all kinds - an explanation of how certain spiritual matters only become clear to us through an internal process rather than through explicit depiction or expression.  The fact that the poem was written in the 4th century about a painting of Buddha's shadow should not obscure us from appreciating its more general significance in terms of contemporary abstract art.

Boundless and untended is the cosmos

So profligate in its promptings and rewards

But speaking of emptiness or trying to contain it in words

Or finessing it too finely with a brush to pass it on

Makes it seems overly concrete and diminished

Yet diluted and infused by water

The natural beauty of emptiness

Can be rendered far more clearly

By a brush with only the lightest touch

Of its fine white strands that thus

Bring nothingness gloriously to life

Dim and murky as the night but

What resides within remains clear and bright

To feel thus deeply infused by inner accord

To be fixed in sincerity

So it reverberates outwardly

An echo that lingers

And reaches to the highest peaks

To comprehend what crosses over

In the dim and dark bestowal of gifts

Consoled by possessing your own balance

And finding merit not simply

By following what came before

茫茫荒宇

靡勸靡奬

談虚寫容

拂空傳像

相具體微

沖姿自朗

白毫吐曜

昏夜中爽

感徹乃應

扣誠發響

留音停岫

津悟冥賞

撫之有會

功弗由曩

   

Inscription on Buddha's Shadow (by Hui Yuan) - part 1

A little over 1600 years ago, the Buddhist monk Hui Yuan commissioned an artist to paint the image of Buddha's shadow on a silk scroll.  This may very well be the first recorded instance of abstract art.  Hui was inspired to have an artist undertake this work after hearing reports of a cave in northern Indian where Buddha's shadow could supposedly be seen flickering against the wall.  This poem is the first part of an inscription that Hui Yuan wrote when the painting of Buddha's shadow was hung on the wall of a cave on Mt. Lu, where he had established his own monastic community.

Vast is the great one’s image

In essence nameless and obscure

The Buddha’s body transformed into

A shadow cast upon the wall 

While sunlight glimmers on layered cliffs

And shines on the empty pavilion

In the dim cave nothing is concealed

But shrouded in gloom it’s made clearer still

Graceful as a cicada’s transformation

The disciples sit rapt and alert

Each responds differently in repose

As the shadowy image almost disappears

廓矣大像

理玄無名

體神入化

落影離形

廻暉層巖

凝暎虚亭

在陰不昧

處暗愈明

婉步蟬蛻

朝宗百靈

應不同方

蹟絕兩[宴

Almost as beautiful as the poem, Hui Yuan also wrote a short commentary or explanation of why he commissioned the painting of a shadow.  Here is his explanation (as translated by Eugene Wang of Harvard University):

Even though I was enlightened by the generous teaching and immersed myself in the Buddhist sutras, every now and then I have always pictured in my mind the Buddha’s miraculous deeds to solidify my conviction. From the encounter with the itinerant monk from the Western Region, I learned about the Buddha Shadow [Image]. However, my informer was vague on this. Later, a meditation master from Kaśmīra, a vinaya monk of the south state, confirmed what I heard on the basis of his own visit to the site. I pressed them more on the matter and found that many miracles had been verified. The divine Way is unfathomable except through its lodging in images. The insight results from prolonged contemplation instead of a momentary impulse. I have thus come to believe firmly in the truthfulness of what I have been told and share the same conviction.34 I have therefore convened a group of like-minded [people], and together we shall broadcast the Buddha’s true flavor. In a worthy effort to spread the joy of inclusionary wholesome practice, we have thus made the picture.  

On Dong Yang Creek - The Answer in a Moment's Passing

This is an exquisite little poem by Xie Ling Yun, a Chinese poet of the 4th century.  On the one hand, it's a simple folk song that tells the story of an encounter, or non-encounter, between a man and a woman along the banks of the Dong Yang River.  The first verse is sung by the man and the second verse is sung by the woman, which makes it easy to imagine this duet being performed by the 4th century equivalent of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.  But the poem also invites another layer of meaning. Xie Ling Yun was a lifelong practicing Buddhist and the two verses together present a vivid image of life's ephemeral passage on the banks of Dong Yang Creek. 

How lovely on the riverbank

Whose wife do you suppose that is

So karma flows on as she

Washes silken clothes

The bright moon

In the midst of the clouds

Playing hide and seek

Just out of reach

How lovely on the passing barge

Whose husband do you suppose that is

So karma flows on as

He goes downriver

Take note of this feeling

As if it were real

The moon passes

Amidst the clouds waning

东阳溪中赠答

谢灵运

可怜谁家妇

缘流洗素足

明月在云间

迢迢不可得

可怜谁家郎

缘流乘素舸

但问情若为

月就云中堕