 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Introduction by
Thich Nhat Hanh " I have a poem for you. This poem is about 3 of us. The first is a 12 year old girl, one of the boat people crossing the gulf of Siam. She was raped by a sea pirate and after that, she threw herself in the sea. The second is a sea pirate who was born in a remote village in Thailand, and the third person was me. I was not on the boat. I was tens of thousands of miles away, but because I was mindful, I knew what was going on in the gulf. I was very angry of course, but I could not take sides against the sea pirate. If I could have, it would have been easier, but I couldn't. I realised, that if I had been born in this village, and had lived a similar life, economic, educational and so on, it is likely that I would now be that sea pirate. So it is not easy to take sides. Out of suffering, I wrote this poem, It is called , "Please Call Me by My True Names", because I have many names, and when you call me by any of them, I have to say " Yes". "Do not say that I will depart tomorrow, Because even today, I still arrive. Look deeply, I arrive on every second, to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and hope, the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive. I am the May fly, metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird, which when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the May fly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond, and I am also the grass snake, approaching in silence, who feeds upon the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. I am the twelve year old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean, after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am the pirate, my heart yet not capable of seeing and loving. I am the member of the Politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man, who has to pay a debt of blood to my people, dying slowly in a forced labour camp. My joy is like a spring, so warm, it makes flowers bloom. My pain is like a river of tears, so full, it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names, So I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once. So I can see that my joy and pain are but one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, The door of compassion." Thich Nhat Hanh |
|
|
|