*Monkey
Monkey –Wu Ch’Eng-En – translated by Arthur Waley
A blurb from The Nation describes the book as a “combination of picaresque novel, fairly tale, fabliau, Mickey Mouse, Davy Crocket, and Pilgrim’s Progress.” I would add to that list The Divine Comedy, The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, 1001 Arabian Nights and modern political satire. But despite the seemingly esoteric description, it is a light, breezy novel. The reader doesn’t need to know who Lao Tzu is to laugh when he pinches Monkey and tells him “Be off with you, be off with you, and don’t let me find you hanging round here [heaven] anymore.” The reader doesn’t need to have a few University years of Chinese fiction or philosophy under the belt before laughing at Monkey stuffing himself with the Jade Emperor’s peaches. Nor, even, does the reader need to be steeped in morality, for, though having early attained immortality and, we all know, on fast track for Buddhahood, Monkey still likes to crack a dragon joke before clobbering one over the head with his cudgel in “a real garlic-pounding blow that will finish him off for good and all.”
Waley’s translation flows lightly, using a vernacular that is simple, easy and inviting, and, at the same time, reminiscent of the sagacity of the veteran Boddhisatvas, many of whom make guest appearances. It is a beautiful, wild, fun story centered around a stone-born ape, aka Monkey, aka “Aware of Vacuity,” who tromps the world over in search of mischief, power, peaches, sacred texts and enlightenment. Strikingly similar to 1001 Arabian Nights in both form, wisdom, and content.
“I wonder whether a knowledge of the True Scriptures would not cause some improvement in them? Do you yourself possess those scriptures?’” asked the Bodhisattvas! ‘Yes, three baskets of them,’ said Buddha,” and the journey began…
“Tripitaka said nothing, but only pointed again and again at his own heart.”
“He who does not believe that straight is straight must guard against the wickedness of good.”
“’I will rise on my cloud-trapeze,’ said Monkey, ‘and force my way into the southern gate of Heaven. I shall not go to the Palace of the Pole and Ox, nor to the Hall of Holy Mists, but go straight up to the thirty-third heaven, and in the Trayasimstra Courtyard of the heavenly palace of Quit Grief I shall visit Lao Tzu and ask for a grain of his Nine Times Sublimated Life Restoring Elixir, and with it I shall bring the king back to life.’”
“A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.”
A blurb from The Nation describes the book as a “combination of picaresque novel, fairly tale, fabliau, Mickey Mouse, Davy Crocket, and Pilgrim’s Progress.” I would add to that list The Divine Comedy, The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, 1001 Arabian Nights and modern political satire. But despite the seemingly esoteric description, it is a light, breezy novel. The reader doesn’t need to know who Lao Tzu is to laugh when he pinches Monkey and tells him “Be off with you, be off with you, and don’t let me find you hanging round here [heaven] anymore.” The reader doesn’t need to have a few University years of Chinese fiction or philosophy under the belt before laughing at Monkey stuffing himself with the Jade Emperor’s peaches. Nor, even, does the reader need to be steeped in morality, for, though having early attained immortality and, we all know, on fast track for Buddhahood, Monkey still likes to crack a dragon joke before clobbering one over the head with his cudgel in “a real garlic-pounding blow that will finish him off for good and all.”
Waley’s translation flows lightly, using a vernacular that is simple, easy and inviting, and, at the same time, reminiscent of the sagacity of the veteran Boddhisatvas, many of whom make guest appearances. It is a beautiful, wild, fun story centered around a stone-born ape, aka Monkey, aka “Aware of Vacuity,” who tromps the world over in search of mischief, power, peaches, sacred texts and enlightenment. Strikingly similar to 1001 Arabian Nights in both form, wisdom, and content.
“I wonder whether a knowledge of the True Scriptures would not cause some improvement in them? Do you yourself possess those scriptures?’” asked the Bodhisattvas! ‘Yes, three baskets of them,’ said Buddha,” and the journey began…
“Tripitaka said nothing, but only pointed again and again at his own heart.”
“He who does not believe that straight is straight must guard against the wickedness of good.”
“’I will rise on my cloud-trapeze,’ said Monkey, ‘and force my way into the southern gate of Heaven. I shall not go to the Palace of the Pole and Ox, nor to the Hall of Holy Mists, but go straight up to the thirty-third heaven, and in the Trayasimstra Courtyard of the heavenly palace of Quit Grief I shall visit Lao Tzu and ask for a grain of his Nine Times Sublimated Life Restoring Elixir, and with it I shall bring the king back to life.’”
“A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.”
posted by JohnWashington at 2:29 PM
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