Each season of the year has its own features, which poets and writers extol, celebrate or lament in myriads of poems and
writings among cultures around the world.
When spring comes, nature revives, trees grow green foliage, and flowers bloom everywhere. When spring goes,
spring flowers wither, fade away, and give way to a promising summer with outdoor activities.
The seasonal change of the world is as necessary for the planet as are the air we breathe, and the fresh water we drink.
Accepting the universe as it is is an obvious course of action, but how to take the changes and how to perceive the
transition is a matter of one's outlook on life, one's world-view.
A short poem called a “Buddhist prayer” by some sources, written in Chinese characters and later converted to
Sino-Vietnamese, was penned by a bonze under the Ly dynasty in the 11th century. This poem expresses the mysterious
meaning of life in explicit expressions as well as in implicit allusions.
No literature records exist about the Zen Buddhist priest Man Giac (1051-1096) except for this poem. According to Keith
Weller Taylor in his “The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia,” published in 1992 by Cambridge University, the
influence of Buddhism was preponderant in this era. Buddhist monks were largely instrumental in the establishment of the Ly
dynasty.
The first ruler of the House of Ly, Ly Cong Uan, was raised by a monk named Van Hanh, who supported him as sovereign
in 1009. Ly Cong Uan (or King Ly Thai To), and the next three kings Ly Thai Tong, Ly Thanh Tong, Ly Can Duc, all
encouraged the expansion of Vietnamese literature by using the Sino-Vietnamese writing system.
The title of the poem “Cao Tat Thi Chung,” literally “Advice from a person of ill health,” expresses an ideology of life, a
philosophy and the karma: the cycle of births and rebirths, the cycle known in Buddhism as the samsara, the round of births
and deaths, the never-ending series of cause and effect.
The first two verses cover the general concept of the passage of time (spring goes, spring comes) and its consequences
on nature (flowers fall, flowers bloom):
When spring goes, hundreds of flowers fall.
When spring comes, hundreds of flowers bloom.
The next two lines touch upon the effect of the march of time on human life. Life may exist here now, but may
disappear at any moment. Years are added to one’s life with age.
Things keep passing as I watch.
My head is showing signs of the years.
Following the objective observation of the first four lines, the last two verses expound the author's profound and insightful
philosophy with a universal appeal.
The author's closing message encapsulates his outlook, “Don’t tell me that the flowers are all gone when spring is over;
you must see that life is inexhaustible, boundless. Life and death are in constant transition. I saw a branch of plum
blooming overnight near my front door. The new blossoming is the begining of new life, the life after life, the spiritual and
eternal life."
On that note, let us enjoy Man Giac's laconic but pregnant poem in its totality.
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