(no subject)

I first learned of the parable of the monkeys trying to capture the moon from one of my art books. It contains a detail of a Momoyama-period writing box in black lacquer and gold, showing a monkey and her child dangling from a pine bough and reaching for the moon in the water beneath them. The tale dating back to an early Buddhist text translated from Indian sources into Chinese in the 3rd century is as follows: A monkey looked down a well and was upset to see the moon trapped in its depths. Raising the alarm to the rest of his troop, the monkeys linked themselves together in a chain from a tree branch in an attempt to rescue the moon. Striving vainly after an illusion, all the monkeys died when the branch broke.* (Money L. Hickman, Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama, pp. 236-239)
 
Today this exquisite reinterpretation of the tale was sent to me:

The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.
    - Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1789.

Mikô suigetsu o saguri,
Shi ni itaru made kyûketsu sezu.
Hôshu shinsen ni mossureba,
Jippô hikari kôketsu.



Romaji text and scroll by Hakuin from http://www.terebess.hu/zen/hakuin/hakuin9.html

Thank you, Sasha.