Some years ago I composed a few verses of poetry using quite traditional Irish scenario and a Buddhist theme. Ancient Irish literature often depicted scenes where an otherworldly woman would come and bring a young mortal man off to a supernatural realm to live in paradisiacal surroundings. In this poem, the woman is a personification of wisdom, or Prajnaparamita, and the ‘place’ to which she summons the mortal is a pure land, a Buddha realm where Emptiness manifests a setting of sublime beauty. It follows a lyrical dialogue structure. I hope you enjoy!
A SONG FOR OISIN
1
He -
‘Last night’s rain has emptied into daylight,
On now again, towards another dusk,
A sore bone clicks,
And this day?-
Faded plastic,
Sullen, in the dim rain pools.
Where did my years go?
where went youth?
Passing now,
Past, away.
She vanished, far off,
To where a fire might still be burning,
Might be, yet more real
than here in waking life.
She’s gone on sleep’s tide,
Gone far and away,
Sombre years pass me,
And, she’s vanished into dream’
2
She-
‘No, my Oisin, I still see you,
Standing noble, bright,
Through all these aging days,
Handsome, as you were that day in the sun,
Blessed as we were,
together at life’s noontide.
Come away with me now,
to the world of eternal restoration,
There to ride out again,
from the cave of sleep and memory,
to the old world, ever-new.
Come, kouros,
leave behind ache and decay,
To the hidden springs of life’s flood
We’ll go’
3
‘Come with me,
we’ll away on this wind of light,
To the house of birth,
O beloved one,
we’ll go.
4
Hours in pain,
like a whirlwind in the summer grass
They shall vanish off,
and the living breath
return.
5
There are new fruits and silver vessels waiting
No absence of bright mirth
No weariness abiding
There shall your old eyes be reopened.
6
Come with me,
your pale heart now be lifted up,
To the world of youth,
O beloved one,
we’ll go.’
7
All that you can imagine is there waiting
Palaces of flowers,
fragrant wooded bowers
jewels stream from the boughs in sparkling splendour
8
The voice of the wind
Hymns sighing on a perfumed breath
There, night and day follow on a single thought
9
Come now with me
On my wings towards the sacred sky
To emptiness that is fullness
Return
10
As the world wheel rolls on
To the hub housed in Heaven’s realm
O, beloved one,
Come with me
Return
11
Leave aside now aches enduring
Away with age and anguish
Come, beloved
To the world of youth
We’ll go