Friday, June 03, 2011

Because the courtyard is a mirror tonight

Abhinavgupta

Careful, Master!

The mirror lies
     all that is to our right
     it shows to our left,
     all that is to our left
     it tells to our right.

Thus
there is scope for doubt too
as to whether we are standing on our head
or our feet?

Or
is it not
that joining the sky and the abyss
an imaginary line
      cuts right and left at a point
              that is in fact truth's most sensitive point?


The poem above is a translation by Apurva Narain or the original one in Hindi, written by Kunwar Narain. I felt I just had to share some poetry with the world today. 


The poem is addressed to Abhinavgupta, who is supposed to be an ancient philosopher-aesthetician of the 11th century recognition school of Kashmiri Saivite monism' (which I don't know anything about).

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