Kyunyŏ-jŏn : The life, Times and Songs of a Tenth Century Korean Monk by CHŎNG HYŎNGNYŎN - HTML preview

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7. Asking the Buddhas to Remain in the World


請佛住世歌


Line 1 皆佛體

2        必于化緣盡動賜隱乃

3        毛乙賓非嗚良尔

4        世呂中止以友白乎等耶


5        曉留朝于萬夜未

6        向屋赐尸朋知良閪尸也

7        伊知皆矣為米

8        道尸迷反群良哀呂舌


9        落句 吾里心音水凊等 

10      佛影不冬應為賜下呂


21.1.1:       HD; “all”.

21.1.2-3:    UD + UG; “the buddhas”.


Line 1:       “... all the buddhas...”

21.2.1-2:    UG + UG; “although”.

21.2.3-4:    UD + UD; “the causes of their manifestation”.

21.2.5-6:    HG + UG; “exhaust”.

21.2.7-9:    UG + UG + UG; honorific VE for 21.2.5-6.


Line 2:       “... although (they) will exhaust the causes of their manifestation...”

21.3.1:        HD; “hands”.

21.3.2:        UG; OP.

21.3.3-4:     UG + UG; “rub, knead”.

21.3.5-7:     UG + UG + UG; VE for 21.3.3-4.


Line 3:       “I join my hands...”

21.4.1:         HD; “world”.

21.4.2:         UG; FS for 21.4.1.

21.4.3:         UG; LP.

21.4.4:         HD; “stop”.

21.4.5-10:    HG + UG + HG + UG + HG + UG; exclamatory VE for 21.4.4.


Line 4:       “... may they remain in the world.”

21.5.1:         HD; “dawn”.

21.5.2:         UG; “from”.

21.5.3:         HD; “morning”.

21.5.4-5:      UG + UG; FS for 21.5.3.

21.5.6:         HD; “night”.

21.5.7:         UG; FS for 21.5.6 + “at”.


Line 5:       “From dawn to morning, to night,...”

21.6.1:         HD; “face”.

21.6.2-4:      UG + HG + UG; attributive VE for 21.6.1 “(the friend) who faces (us)”.

21.6.5:         HD; “friend”.

21.6.6:         HD; “know”.

21.6.7-10:    UG + UG + UG + UG; exclamatory VE for 21.6.6.


Line 6:       “... indeed we know the friend who is before us!”

21.7.1:         UG; “this”.

21.7.2:         HD; “know”.

21.7.3-4:      UG + UG; VE for 21.7.2.

21.7.5:         HD; “practise, do”. Yang reads “become”.

21.7.6:         UG; gerundive VE for 21.7.6.


Line 7:       “... and when they become aware of this...”

21.8.1:         HD; “path”.

21.8.2:         UG; FC for 21.8.1.

21.8.3:         HD; “go astray”.

21.8.4:         UG; FS + attributive VE for 21.8.3.

21.8.5:         HD; “throngs, multitudes”.

21.8.6:         UG; FS for 21.8.5.

21.8.7:         HD; “pity, have compassion for”.

21.8.8-9:      UG + HG; exclamatory VE for 21.8.7.


Line 8:       “... they shall have pity for the multitudes who have gone astray”

21.9.1-2:      HD + HD; “Ah,...”.

21.9.3:         HD; “our”.

21.9.4:         UG; FS for 21.9.3.

21.9.5:         HD; “heart”.

21.9.6:         UG; FS for 21.9.5.

21.9.7:         HG; FS for 21.9.5 + OP.

21.9.8:         HD; “purify, cleanse”.

21.9.9:         UG; conditional VE for 21.9.8.


Line 9:       “Ah, if we cleanse our hearts...”

21.10.1-2:    UD + UD; “image of the Buddha”.

21.10.3-4:    HD + UG; negative prefix for 21.10.5.

21.10.5-6:    HD; “suitable, proper”.

21.10.7-9:    HD + UG + UG; exclamatory VE for 21.10.5-6.


Line 10:       “... will we not see the Buddha’s image there!”

Again, the HYS text is short and taxonomical, and so offers little help for the structuring of a song. Kyunyŏ’s response is again to present a gesture of worship and then expound on its religious significance. This he does so with virtually no recourse to poetic devices. The two main stanzas are divided into two independent clauses, and hence do not permit the build-up of attributives, there are no real parallelisms, and there is no lyricism to speak of.


Although all buddhas

Are bound to exhaust the causes of their manifestation,

I join my hands in supplication

And beg them to remain in the world.

We truly know them as our friends

To whom we turn from dawn through morning to evening.

Knowing this, they will surely have compassion

For all those who have strayed from the path.

Ah, when we purify our hearts,

Will we not see the Buddha’s image there?