Good evening!
Today’s NHK News Watch reported a famous kabuki actor finding
his father’s farewell poem left in his pc. a few months ago.
The report quoted:
The color is the sky.
The sky is the color.
(Fare) to the timeless world.
色は空;
空は色,
時なき世へ.
Iro-wa sora.
Sora-wa iro.
Toki-naki yo-e.
He regretted not knowing his father already had known his passing away.
He asked their patrons to remember his father when they see the sky.
Actually the poem is quoting a couplet in the Heart Sutra telling the
substancelessness (devoid of substance or entity) of phenomena:
Form is śûnyatā.
Śûnyatā is form.
To the timeless realm.
色は空
空は色
時なき世へ
Shiki-wa kû.
Kû-wa shiki.
Toki-naki yo-e
– Danjûrō Ichikawa
Let us fare well to the formless and timeless realm here now with
penetrating pure peace and prognosis.
2/27/13
Note: Śûnyatā (voidness of substance) The Sino-Japanese translation
空 (pronounced kû) of it also means sky (pronounced sora).
