Silence (38) - Tĩnh lặng (38). Mai Văn Phấn. Explicated by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya - bình chú. Traduction française Dominique de Miscault – Dịch sang tiếng Pháp. Takya Đỗ dịch sang tiếng Việt
24/09/2017 20:27:00
Silence (38) by Mai Văn Phấn
Explicated by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Translated into French by Dominique de Miscault
Translated into Vietnamese by Takya Đỗ

Tác phẩm của HS. Dominique de Miscault
Silence
38
I am vegetation
Light from my previous
life
Draws on a white canvas
My body is immobilized
In a group of sheaths
Waiting for roots to
penetrate from either side
Once withering
Once thriving
Both are common experiences in this light.
(Translated from Vietnamese by Nhat-Lang Le & Susan Blanshard)
Explication
It is true that a poet is
an ordinary man like us. And yet he is a little different. His imagination can
rid him of egocentrism and material considerations. A poet seldom looks forward
to his material prosperity. His sympathies embrace things that we common
men can seldom reach. May be when a tree is hurt by an woodcutter one may espy
a wound in the body of the poet himself. The ideal poet is a yogi whose
consciousness transcends his own body and self. Our Mai Van Phan is a poet of
that kind. And hence he can all on a sudden exclaim in trance - I am
vegetation. Vegetation implies all the plants in a particular area or plants on
the earth At the same time vegetation means the action or process of
vegetating or growing sprout. How do the plants sprout? They sprout from the seed.
What is a seed? It is largely the tendencies the thirsts and actions of an
earlier birth condensed. A particular tree is born, grows and dies. But there
is something indeterminate in every tree which does not die. It is the
resultant of karma of the plant during its lifetime. Karma is the energy
that lingers in the form of a seed even when the plant is dead. The
resultant of one’s appears as the seed. We are the heirs of our karma in the
earlier life. From the seed only or the karma of the earlier life another plant
springs. The origin and the course of the newly born plant is determined by the
actions and intention of the earlier plant that bore the seed. So on a plane
particular plants are not real. But vegetation is real and the poet identifies
himself with vegetation. In other words the poet is not only identified
with the plant life, he is identified with the process of how the plant life
flows on earth. The seed of everything in the existence is Buddha nature
on another plane. Buddha nature is the material of the existence – the canvass.
Our thoughts and actions in any lifetime is also Buddha nature at heart. So the
seed of a particular life is also Buddha nature. And from a yogi poet’s
perspective it is Buddha nature only that forges the differences on the canvas
of Buddha nature. And Buddha nature is all light sans any trace of darkness in
it. So being identified with vegetation the poet realizes that vegetation
is but a flow of light from one birth to another birth drawn on a white canvas.
This is a world view perceived only by yogis and poets. While the poet is
spiritually one with the vegetation the physical body of the poet is
immobilized in the zendo. His body is not made of one sheath. According to
Indian philosophy a body consists of five sheaths. On the surface there is the
body made of flesh and blood. Below that there is the body made of vital air.
Below that there is the mental body. Deeper than that there is the body of
awareness and knowledge. Below that there is the body of bliss. Perhaps the
last one could be described as the body which is Buddha nature. All these five
sheaths of the poet’s body in the contingent vegetates. While he is bodily
immobilized here in the zendo he is fully awake and alive in the plants there
in the wilderness and gardens. Being one with the plant life the poet
experiences now withering and now thriving. Withering could be death and
thriving could imply life. Thus the poet discovers himself as a
journeyman passing through life and death and life again. He realizes what
rebirth is and shares the truth of rebirth with his fellow readers.
Explication par Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Traduction française Dominique de Miscault

Sự run rảy của cuộc sống - Dominique de Miscault
Silence
38
Je suis Végétation
lumière de ma vie antérieure
sur une toile vierge
Je suis immobile
dans un tas de gaines
aspirant à la germination
Un jour aride
un jour épanoui