5月23日

戲台
二月河 ( 1945~ )

癡子，世界原是大戲臺，
毋須掬淚；
傻子，戲臺本來小世界，
且宜佯瘋。

人生好比一口大鍋，
當你走到了鍋底時，
只要你肯努力，
無論朝哪個方向，
都是向上的。

每寫一部書，就等於穿越一片大沙漠，
確實感到寂寞而空寂，自己完全是一個獨行客，
但繞過去就有一片綠洲在等待著自己。

磋跌磨折苦，欲行不宜行，欲往更難往。
電光石火裡，翻多少筋斗，
乃知蒙昧意思，最難悟。
此岸彼岸何處，煙雨茫蒼行客孤，
只向妙善公主，漫天徹地悲憫心，
修幾劫恆河沙數，方植出長生果、菩提樹？
真難堪是俗子凡夫，焉說得我「壽者無」，
恍然間心無施處。
噫！洪波險，孽海遙，慈航度。

──選自《二月河語》等

May 23

Stage
Eryue He (1945 - )
English translation: Miao Guang

                                   I
Silly One! The world is in fact once a huge stage;
there is no need to shed tears. Silly one! The
stage is actually a small world; one may as well
pretend to be crazy.

                                   II
Life is like a deep pot; though having reached
the bottom, if you are willing to strive hard, any
direction you then face will be nowhere but up.

                                   III
Every time I finish writing a book, it would feel
as if I had just crossed a giant desert, with the
lonely and empty feeling of a completely solitary
traveler. Nevertheless, once the desert is crossed,
what awaits ahead will be an oasis.

                                   IV
Wasting time stumbling and suffering, because
of one’s desire to do the undoable and tread the
untreadable. Within a flash of a moment, having
stumbled many times, one finally realizes that
it is most difficult to become enlightened to the
meaning of ignorance.

Amidst the hazy rain, where can the lone
traveler go, on this shore and the other shore?
Only siding with Princess Miao Shan, one of
pervading compassion─how many innumerable
kalpas of cultivation did she take to finally
nurture the fruit of longevity and tree of Bodhi?

Truly awkward it is for an ordinary human,
a commoner like me to be called “an ageless man.”
Suddenly, there is no place to settle my heart.

Alas! Dangerous the torrential waves are.
Far away the evil sea is. Only the ferry of compassion
can help me cross it.

── from Eryue He Yu (Sayings by Eryue He) and others