top of page
Emma Palmer

'How can you alone live forever?'

Updated: Aug 8, 2019



When blossoms of Japanese cherry burst forth outside the kitchen window I can understand why they are a favourite subject of poets, writers, and any beings with their senses intact. The frothy canopy of soft loveliness contrasted with the chocolate-coloured bark, silhouetted against the deep blue sky. The verse which springs to mind is Kukai's letter written to a nobleman in Kyoto in the 9th century, taken from his 'Major Works', which I've included below. Kukai lived from 774 to 835AD. He was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, and founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school, as it's known, of Buddhism. This verse never fails to remind me of beauty and impermanence - a favourite Buddhist theme.

The first time I heard this being read many years ago I didn't understand what it meant, I just knew that I loved it, with it rich nature imagery. I was struck by the awe and longing infused in the repeated phrase 'have you not seen, O have you not seen...' Nowadays I read the letter and I'm reminded afresh of why I often leave the city in search of wilderness, and why I seek wilder corners of the city itself. I feel somber (and, yet, relieved) when I read the reminder of impermanence:

'Have you not seen, O have you not seen,

This has been man's fate, how can you alone live forever?

Thinking of this, my heart always feels torn;

You, too, are like the sun going down behind the western mountains...'

Strangely, today, just as I've read this verse and written this, clicking the kettle on for a cup of tea, I checked my 'phone and heard of the untimely death of the comedienne, writer, and actress Victoria Wood. Ha! Life's so full of itself, never standing still. Even as we reflect on impermanence it's happening all around us, as sure as the cherry blossom's being blown from the tree. Victoria Wood was one of those larger than life characters you could almost imagine, well, I could almost imagine - in some child-like way - defying death through her skillful wit. Her bright, clever, funny, incisiveness will stay with me for life. My thoughts are with her family in their grieving.

From now on, when I see cherry blossom, when Kukai's words come to mind each spring, I will also remember Victoria Wood, role model to many girls - now women - of my generation.

"You ask me why I entered the mountain deep and cold,

Awesome, surrounded by steep peaks and grotesque rocks,

A place that is painful to climb and difficult to descend,

Wherein reside the gods of the mountain and the spirits of trees.

Have you not seen, O have you not seen,

The peach and plum blossoms in the royal garden?

They must be in full bloom, pink and fragrant,

Now opening in the April showers, now falling in the spring gales;

Flying high and low, all over the garden the petals scatter.

Some sprigs may be plucked by the strolling spring maidens,

And the flying petals picked by the flittering spring orioles.

Have you not seen, O have you not seen,

The water gushing up in the divine spring of the garden?

No sooner does it arise than it flows away forever:

Thousands of shining lines flow as they come forth,

Flowing, flowing, flowing into an unfathomable abyss;

Turning, whirling again, they flow on forever,

And no one knows where they will stop.

Have you not seen, O have you not seen,

That billions have lived in China, in Japan,

None have been immortal, from time immemorial:

Ancient sage kings or tyrants, good subjects or bad,

Fair ladies and homely - who could enjoy eternal youth?

Noble men and lowly alike, without exception, die away;

They all have died, reduced to dust and ashes;

The singing halls and dancing stages have become the abodes of foxes.

Transient as dreams, bubbles or lightening, all are perpetual travellers.

Have you not seen, O have you not seen,

This has been man's fate, how can you alone live forever?

Thinking of this, my heart always feels torn;

You, too, are like the sun going down behind the western mountains,

Or a living corpse whose span of life is nearly over.

Futile would be my stay in the capital;

Away, away, I must go, I must not stay there.

Release me, for I shall be master of the great void;

A child of Shingon must not stay there.

I have never tired of watching the pine trees and the rocks at Mount Koya;

The limpid stream of the mountain is the source of my inexhaustible joy.

Discard pride in earthly gains;

Do not be scorched in the burning house, the triple world!

Discipline in the woods alone lets us soon enter the eternal Realm."

182 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page