Читать книгу Time and love. The novel in verse - George Pospelow - Страница 19
Part I
Indian spring
March
When arrogance eclipses love
ОглавлениеWe rambled in Katmandu,
temples and temples along.
No novelty after India.
Visualizing ourselves
as pundits – whether
Sanskrit, Pali12,
Buddhism, Hinduism —
we were on top of them,
talking to “inanimate” objects.
Merely later, we became
ashamed, this was when.
The main Stupa13.
The all-seeing eyes —
animated, though painted —
of the all-powerful Buddha
were looking to the four
sides of the horizon.
Hugging one another,
we led the conversation,
“You know us, the Great,
make us the absolute best
of the lovers
who lived on the Earth.”
The response, “Firstly, restrain
the arrogance,” struck us
as a harsh electric charge.
He remained confident.
We started shaking
on bent knees before him,
then stomped away,
of course, we forgot why
we had come there —
to spin mantras14 and make
our wishes come true.
For the whole day and night
we refused to utter a word.
12
Pali is mainly a language of Buddhism, interspersed in development between Sanskrit and new Indian languages
13
Stupa – a tall conical building in Buddhist architecture
14
Mantra – here: a Buddhist prayer accompanied by the spinning of a particular wheel
