Poem Saturday

by Tawni Anderson on May 30, 2009 in Zen

This poem by Hakuin stands on its own.

Oh young folk-
if you fear death,
die now!
Having died once,
you won’t die again.

Julie May 31, 2009 at 9:34 am #

Wow . . . it’s like a river of wood. Cool.

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Rebecca May 31, 2009 at 12:44 pm #

“And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”

- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 146, line 14

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Gertje June 14, 2009 at 1:49 pm #

It may be out of context, but this reminds me of the last verse of Goethe`s poem “Selige Sehnsucht” (blissful yearning):

Und so lang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde.

(And so long as you have not attained it,
this, “Die and become!”,
you will only be a gloomy guest
on this dark earth.)

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Tawni June 14, 2009 at 9:15 pm #

I like that, Gertje! And Rebecca’s too. To go quite out of context, but also completely within context, the Shakespeare also reminded me of Cee Lo Green, a hip hop artist, who sang “I’ve got to die once / to never ever die again”.

These ideas span time and cultures; so marvelous.

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LINDY February 15, 2010 at 9:27 pm #

Bravo, this magnificent phrase is necessary just by the way

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