Sunday, September 6, 2020

SONGS OF THE LITTLE HUT ~












Songs of the Little Hut
               ____________________


The sky god rains

but my hut is well thatch'd

draft free, simple

I concentrate my mind —

Rain, sky god

           rain

                                                 — Godhika





Who dwells in the little hut?

A solitary hermit

He's shed desire

He keeps a sharp mind

Oh his little hut was not

built in vain


                                                 — Kutiviharin





You have your old cottage

Now you want a new one

but friend don't you realize

a new cottage is just

             further trouble


                                                   — Kutiviharin





Irrigators channel the creeks

Fletchers straighten the

arrow shaft

Carpenters bend a plank to their will

Men of character

            give shape to the self


                                                      — Kula





The seeing one sees both

the one who sees

and the one who doesn't

The one who doesn't see

sees neither


                                                     — Vappa





My little hut pleases me

I have no need for women

Let them take their

fine clothes and trouble

            somewhere else


                                                     — Ramaniyakutika





Addictions he shook off

food, clothes, house, medicine, no longer needed

His birthplace is emptiness

He leaves tracks

like a bird

through the sky


                                                         — Vijaya





We dwell alone in the forest

old trees the woodcutter rejected

People look at me

like hell-bound creatures at someone

             going to heaven


                                                              — Vijjiputta 




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Enlightenment Poems from the Theragatha and Therigatha


Songs of the Sons and Daughters of Buddha
translated by Andrew Schelling and Anne Waldman
Shambhala 2020




just be honest — wouldn't you have loved to have written these poems!