Brecht's poem: Buddha said fire house

Bertolt Belecht (1898–1956) was a German playwright and poet. Studied philosophy and medicine in his youth. He is the founder of "Epic Drama", one of the three major drama systems in the world. His poetry, like his plays, is philosophical and thought-provoking.

The Buddha said fire house

Buddha Gautama, teaching the teachings, about

The wheel of greed that entangles us,

Advise us to let go of all desires, and so on

No desire and no desire, so that there is nothing, is called nirvana.

One day, a disciple asked for advice:

Teacher, what is nothing? We wait

Listen to the teachings, get rid of all desires, but still please advise,

The "nothing" I desire

Whether it is one with all things.

At noon, lying in the water, the flesh is light

Almost thoughtless, lounging in the water, or sinking into sleep

Almost unconsciously, the quilt has been covered

Soon sinking, I don't know this nothing

Whether it is a happy nothingness, a friendly nothingness, or yours this nothingness

But it is nothingness, cold, empty, meaningless.

The Buddha was silent for a long time, and then said lightly:

There is no answer to your question.

In the evening, when they leave,

Buddha was still sitting under the bread tree, to those

The person who did not ask the question told the following metaphor:

Recently I saw a house. It caught fire. Flames

Licking the roof. I stepped forward and found out

There were still people in the house. I came in the door and shouted,

The roofs were already on fire, so let them

Leave quickly. But people seem to be

There is no rush. One person asked me,

His eyebrows have been charred,

What the hell is going on outside the house and whether it's not raining either

Is it also not windy, is there another house

And so on. I don't say a word.

Leave the house. I think before they stop asking questions,

These people had to be burned to death. Indeed, for those

Unless the ground under your feet is so hot that you can't stand it anymore, you will not be willing

Friends who exchange places with anyone,

I have nothing to say. Buddha Gautama, so said.

But we, too, no longer care about the art of endurance,

Rather, it is the art of practicing impatience, proposing a lot

The teachings of the world, urging people

Stay away from their persecutors,

Those people, when the hordes of bombers brought by capital took off, asked incessantly:

How we think, how we conceive,

What will their piggy bank and Sunday pants look like after the upheaval?

We don't have much to say to those people.

(Translated by Hu Wei)