Buddha is a woman

1992

(music: Cat Power)

 

     Satori


     I swore myself that
    I won't die
    Until I've found
    the rhythm
    With which to tap
    the sense of my life

    I've been searching for years 
    and 
    then it came
    when I was lying with no thoughts
    the neighbour
    next door
    hammered the walls
    the clock was tick-tocking
    the water was drip-dropping from the tap
    
    I won't die
    

    
 

 

 

 

     My land


     What is it all about, guvner
    am I not allowed to drink, spit or swear here
    this hideous crowd of aggregate re-creation
    after all this is my land
    
    For years I've been meditating over the weirdness of mandala
    stained with blood spots of the eternal Building-site
    normal to all appearance
    the digestive system of streets palpitates
    there is no face below every eighth cap
    – the national average
    the addressees of the dumb neon signs are just like them
    grotesque and defective
    
    On the palm of my town
    the line of happiness is already worn out
    I stubbornly look after
    the line of heart
    
    The staircases blooming with urine
    they are lumpen-proletariat parliament here
    if it were not for the orphanages and the aged hotels
    I would think that 
    WE ARE ALL VERY NEEDED HERE
    
    I go past Bosch's mad ship
    Queing to get Bosch drifters
    
    What is wrong, guvner
    I have only unsaddled my nerves with a few pints of beer
        
    And what is in, er –
    guvner
    AAAh!!! to force
    and to cry out a few m/orally forbidden words
    
    And I could escape into myself but THEM
    psychiatrists
    are lurking
    to reincarnate me
    into an inter-hospital corridor-dweller
    
    so, guvner
    I'll stay here somehow for
    there are two of us
    ME AND MY TOWN
    
    two faithful companions
    

    
 


 

     Tattoo
    
    
    what happened
    under the Bodhi fig-tree
    where drunk Gautama
    mumbled that everything is
    suffering
    and he threw an empty bottle
    at the Moon
    
    the universe hugged Gautama
    embraced
    they are equally incomprehensible

    by the white breast 
    of my lady
    I do my best to forget
    about suffering
    
    on her thigh
    there is a tattoo of a nude woman
    and she is always smiling
    Gautama,
    does she not
    suffer at all ?
    
    I throw an empty bottle at the Moon
    
    



 

      Martha and Maria
    
    
    On foot-soled pavements
    I've been seeking you, man-Friday's trace
    
    In vultures' nests
    I've been seeking you, the unmollusced pearl
    
    In night bars
    I've been seeking you, the morning dew
    
    In the crowd of Marthas
    I'm seeking for you, Maria

 

 

 

 


 
    * * *
    
                                                                    to Luke
                                                                    for the verse 21, and the chapter 17
    

    
    I have seen thousands running
    I have seen thousands screaming
    I have seen thousands praying
    and not a single
    god
    
    I buy spectacles
    
    I can see millions running
    I can see millions screaming
    I can see millions praying
    and not a single
    god
    
    I turn my eyes inside
    
    I can see billions running
    I can see billions screaming
    I can see billions praying
    gods
    and not a single one...
    
    

 

 

 

 

 

      Jesus

  
    Near the forest track
    Which owes its existence to the drunk villagers` bikes
    Is sitting
    Jesus
    Whom owe their existence the drunk villagers

    The rain
    Is compassionately washing the polichromy down
    From His head
    But every night
    Some sadist

    Again and again paints the eyes

    On His face

 

 

 

 

 

     * * *
    

    
    yes
    I did pray for long
    but when you consider 
    god's age
    much too short
    and god was angry
    
    I did search for god briefly
    but when you consider 
    the speed of Creation
    far too long
    and god's look was sour
    
    yes
    I did give alms
    but
    the arrogance of intention
    and god was indignant
    
    I did preach love
    but
    drunken interacts
    and god
    
    no
    I do not believe in god
    I believe in Man
    it's nearly the same
    


 

 

     Books in the snow
    
    
    one morning in December
    I stroll around the supermarket
    brave as a medal
    I can see homeless drunkers
    lying in the snow
    on that very day I sell all my books
    
    and the word became a product
    and became rotten among us
    
    say no if I am wrong
    say yes if I am right
    cry
    snarl
    but do not be silent
    my head
        

    
 

 

 

 

    The little match girl
    
 
    She did not trade with matches
    but cheap wine
    Mr. Andersen
    and she would exchange herself for a moan
    of Babylon coins
    
    It was not in winter but in summer, sir,
    not in snow but just round the corner
    pale legs in the pale sun
    and she got them after God's Creation
    
    Wrapped not in a shall but in mastery
    of the local hairdresser
    shackled in a corset not with the flame of matches
    she tempted 
    but with her eyebrows' fire
    
    Lady Rogue
    a harlot
    a regular whore, Mr. Andersen
    lonely
    

 

 

 

 


    The opening of the exhibition
    
                                                to Vincent
    

    everything as usual
    bla- bla- blabbing about
    the price of Mercedes
    and Richard's new lover
    
    then scarfed males
    went to a champagne dance
    and even someone drunk 
    tried to discuss the art of painting
    
    and it would have been
    a nice opening day
    if just before the closing
    some idiot 
    had not cut off his ear
    

 


 


 
 

 

    Taming the lack of You
    


    I look at You
    under the pale skin I can see
    a SKULL
    an empty plate
    after vermin's breakfast
    already without eyes
    you'll be
    
    I touch your hands
    BONES they'll 
    outlast
    the flesh will fertilize the sand
    
    I can see You're getting smaller 
    a micron this year
    paling
    
    when you decay
    it blossoms 
    within me for You
    love
    a warm sharing
    
    but I
    me too
        
    DEATH is 
    immortal
    teaches me to live
    
    with loving seconds
    
    

 

 

 

 

    * * *
    

    Buddha is a woman
    she sometimes beats a carpet
    murmuring holy vibration
    Ommm...
    
    after 10 p.m.
    the door-keeper drives her out of the back-yard
    let PEOPLE sleep woman
    Buddha is a woman
    gentle
    she feeds birds with vibration 
    Ommm...
    
    she knows a lot about suffering of
    births
    diapers
    bedsores
    and of death
    but she won't reveal that
    not even to the woman next door
    Ommm...
    
    Buddha is a woman
    she washes her underwear
    dreaming about peaceful old age
    Buddha is a woman 
    within me
    

 

 

 


 
    Still hungry

    
    my age becomes older
    what used to hurt
    the dead wings of a bird
    a crying cat 
    and a sleepless night
    it becomes dull
    
    words lose their gloss
    I do not know whether it is boredom or 
    silence 
    
    not waiting for anything
    for is it worth anything
    waiting for nothing
    
    I creep to the kitchen
    I am hungry
    unwanted dishes grow in number
    I get older
    dying alive
    death after death
    and there is grass
    
    so hungry 
    for grass 
    so much hungry
    for love

 

 

 

     The last judgement
    
    
    forgive me that instead of pain 
    I fell in love with the eyes of 
    Brigitte Bardot 
    and I believed that a banner was a sign-post
    
    forgive me that I lingered over sand-glasses
    taming death
    with Bayer
    aspirin
    
    forgive me that stubbornly
    wearing stinking socks
    I put banners on the moon in the crater of 
    Copernicus
    
    forgive me that all that time
    blind
    proud
    craving
    
    in these last moments
    I am flying among the doves of peace
    I can see my innocent planet
    she is still a virgin
    although some time ago
    he was always around her
    the sun
    
    here and there 
    with a blind dog on a lead 
    a man
    is praying
    
    

 

 

     a Friend
    
    
    Christ Our Lord
    he was guite a guy
    think of 
    the wedding-party at Cana
    or a fight with the merchants in the temple
    
    sitting in a wine-bar
    pouring cheap brandy from under the table
    I think I wouldn't mind having a friend like that
    
    I come back home
    next to the church there is a cross
    no one is hanged
    on it
    
    there are stains of blood
    on my bed
    I pick up thorns left in my pillow
    I fall asleep
    and I dream about a miracle
    
    

 

 

 

     Virtue
    
    
    Common-sense is a virtue
    for a schizophrenic who
    fires a gun
    at the clouds
    following him every day
    
    it may really be a virtue
    not to swallow a type-writer
    in order to learn the alphabet 
    by heart
    
    but you
    please lose your reason at least for a moment
    and you will see why every  t r e a
    is so beautifully different from other
    tree
    
    

 

 

 


     Look
    
    when you do not believe in anything
    have a look
    at a burning away
    cigarette
    what it
    could say
        
    it dies with dignity
    lesser only from that 
    of
    a match
    

 

 


     Healthy cooking
    
        
    We cook our best feelings
    strictly in accordance with the recipe
    we put a pinch of love into a pan
    a little faithfulness
    and still stirring
    we spice it with a drop of passion
    
    We heat it up
    strictly in accordance with the recipe
    on a heat-proof pan
    over a low flame
    and we treat others to it on occasion
    
    On week days
    we eat it up cold over a newspaper
    to make sure
    that feelings
    can burn neither themselves
    nor us
    
    strictly in accordance with the recipe
    

 

 

 

     Stuck on myself
    
    
    This kind of moaning
    comes from the fear only
    though It
    was already born dumb
    therefore the silence
    of the hospital hall
    feeds on the murmur
    of slippers
    though It
    won't ever fight the thoughts
    spinning their tango
    round the head
    
    Between me and the suns
    there is a window-pane
    and neuroleptic hosts
    
    Stuck on myself 
    in the eyes of the window
    pushed about in the morning
    in the porridge line
    before the pulse test
    just in case
    I borrow a heart from
    
    No I don't play chess
    with anyone
    I take off my halo
    before going to bed
    and dream of the checkmate
    while here
    eternal as the thought of dead God
    stalemate
    
    

 

 

 

 


     Hop!
    
    
    You said I would see You in two hours

    The seventhousandtwohundredsecond waiting
    Zen Buddhists say
    that HOP! and in every second
    we are born and we die 49 times
    
    then waiting for You
    I was born and died
    threehundredfiftythousandeighthundred times
    the worst of it is that you are gone
    and you won't come
    until tomorrow
    

    HOP!


 

 

 

  

     * * *
    

    
    there is music
    so sad
    so much
    that after it there is only
    
    ...there is breathing out
    so deep
    so much
    that after it there is only
    
    ...there is life
    so trivial sometimes
    that after it
    there is only
    
    ...there will be day
    breathing in
    and joyful
    music
    

 

 

The chosen poems come from the book
Budda jest kobiet± (Buddha is a woman)
published by Stowarzyszenie Literackie im. K.K.Baczyńskiego w Łodzi, 1992,
second edition: by Przed¶wit, Warszawa, 1996.
All verses (except "Jesus") translated by Iwona Witczak
© Copyright by Norbert Kulesza

Back