he Buddha at Kamakura
"And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura"
by Rudyard Kipling
O ye who tread the Narrow Way
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day,
Be gentle when the 'heathen' pray
To Buddha at Kamakura!
To him the Way, the Law, apart,
Whom Maya held beneath her heart,
Ananda's Lord, the Bodhisat,
The Buddha of Kamakura.
For though he neither burns nor sees,
Nor hears ye thank your Deities,
Ye have not sinned with such as these,
His children at Kamakura.
Yet spare us still the Western joke
When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke
The little sins of little folk
That worship at Kamakura.
The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies
That flit beneath the Master's eyes.
He is beyond the Mysteries
But loves them at Kamakura.
And whoso will, from Pride released,
Contemning neither creed nor priest,
May feel the Soul of all the East
About him at Kamakura.
Yea, every tale Ananda heard,
Of birth as fish or beast or bird,
While yet in lives the Master stirred,
The warm wind brings Kamakura.
Till drowsy eyelids seem to see
A-flower 'neath her golden htee
The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly
From Burmah to Kamakura,
And down the loaded air there comes
The thunder of Thibetan drums,
And droned -- "Om mane padme hums" --
A world's-width from Kamakura.
Yet Brahmans rule Benares still,
Buddh-Gaya's ruins pit the hill,
And beef-fed zealots threaten ill
To Buddha and Kamakura.
A tourist-show, a legend told,
A rusting bulk of bronze and gold,
So much, and scarce so much, ye hold
The meaning of Kamakura?
But when the morning prayer is prayed,
Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,
Is God in human image made
No nearer than Kamakura?
-- Rudyard Kipling
"And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura"
by Rudyard Kipling
O ye who tread the Narrow Way
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day,
Be gentle when the 'heathen' pray
To Buddha at Kamakura!
To him the Way, the Law, apart,
Whom Maya held beneath her heart,
Ananda's Lord, the Bodhisat,
The Buddha of Kamakura.
For though he neither burns nor sees,
Nor hears ye thank your Deities,
Ye have not sinned with such as these,
His children at Kamakura.
Yet spare us still the Western joke
When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke
The little sins of little folk
That worship at Kamakura.
The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies
That flit beneath the Master's eyes.
He is beyond the Mysteries
But loves them at Kamakura.
And whoso will, from Pride released,
Contemning neither creed nor priest,
May feel the Soul of all the East
About him at Kamakura.
Yea, every tale Ananda heard,
Of birth as fish or beast or bird,
While yet in lives the Master stirred,
The warm wind brings Kamakura.
Till drowsy eyelids seem to see
A-flower 'neath her golden htee
The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly
From Burmah to Kamakura,
And down the loaded air there comes
The thunder of Thibetan drums,
And droned -- "Om mane padme hums" --
A world's-width from Kamakura.
Yet Brahmans rule Benares still,
Buddh-Gaya's ruins pit the hill,
And beef-fed zealots threaten ill
To Buddha and Kamakura.
A tourist-show, a legend told,
A rusting bulk of bronze and gold,
So much, and scarce so much, ye hold
The meaning of Kamakura?
But when the morning prayer is prayed,
Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,
Is God in human image made
No nearer than Kamakura?
-- Rudyard Kipling
- Narrow Way is a reference to Christianity, which contrasts to the “Eight-fold Path” of Buddhism and the ”Middle Way” of Confucianism.
- Tophet is a place in a valley southwest of Jerusalem. Also the name of the Moloch Shrine (on that spot) where parents sacrificed their children. Also a generic name for a place of child sacrifice or the burial of sacrificial victims (as in Carthage). There is a brief reference to Tophet in the Columbia Encyclopedia (1950 edition).
- Maya was the mother of Gautama (the Historical Buddha)
- Ananda is the faithful chela (disciple) who features in many tales of the Historical Buddha.
- Bodhisat (Sanskrit Bodhisattva, Japanese Bosatsu) is a soul who reaches enlightenment and then devotes his/her life to helping others do the same.
- Joss is 19th-century British slang word for a "heathen" god, and a joss-stick is incense burned in honor of that god. What are the “joss” sticks that "turn to scented smoke?" Ritual most likely.
- The "butterflies" are perhaps the monks?
- Htee is not a typo; it is in italics in the original.
"Surrounded by Peepul trees, the great Htee, with its crown of a myriad jewels, rises towards the violet, star-studded sky, its golden bells tinkling in a soft night wind. When the curtain rises, the circular platform is deserted. Statues of Buddha seated and recumbent fill the numberless niches in the wall, and before each burn long candles; heaped-up pink roses and japonica on brass trays are lit from above by swinging coloured lamps. At intervals are stalls laden with fruit and cheroots. All is mysterious, solemn, beautiful." Oscar Wilde, 1922. - Shwe-Dagon is a temple in Burma.
- Om mane padme hum is a meditation chant.
- Brahmans are the hereditary Hindu priestly caste.
- Benaras is the holy city of Varanasi, at the junction of the Ganges and the Yamuna.
- Buddh-gaya is the spot where Gautama attained enlightenment and became the Buddha.
- http://themargins.net/anth/19thc/kipling.html
Kipling travelled to Japan in 1889 and 1892, and his writings on the country are collected inKipling’s Japan, edited and with copious notes by Hugh Cortazzi and George Webb (London: Athlone, 1988). ‘Buddha at Kamakura’ first appeared appended to a prose ‘Letter’ published in the New York Sun and the Lahore Civil & Military News in July 1892. Three of its verses are used as chapter headings in Kim (1901), and it appears in its entirety in The Five Nations (1903). For the full text of the ‘Letter’ to which the poem was originally appended and knowledgable notes about the poem itself, see Cortazzi and Webb, pp. 195-209.
