Matching the Rhymes of Master Gi's Encomium on Avalokitesvara次韻其禪師觀音讚詩
初自聞中便入流。入流忘了所從由。區區匹素端身像。浩浩恒沙度世憂。眼界光明雖未得。耳門修證此爲尤。豈唯三十一諸國。百億河中一巨舟。
From the first hearing one enters straight into the current, and entering the current, one forgets what it was that led one here. In a small square of plain white silk, the figure of an upright body; vast as the sands of the Ganges, she draws the world's cares from the water. In the realm of the eye the radiance has not yet been won, but cultivation and witness through the gate of the ear—this is the finest of all. How should it be thirty-one countries only? Among a hundred million rivers she is the one great boat.
Interlinear notes 1
晉陽公所送像
This is the image sent by the Duke of Jinyang (晉陽公).
面如滿月眼如流。眼臂皆千叵測由。何必眞身長禮足。一看遺像已銷憂。觀能觀了聞音脫。空所空圓勝力尤。願得爍迦羅體相。此身非固似藏舟。
Her face like the full moon, her eyes like flowing water, eyes and arms a thousand each—the reason cannot be fathomed. Why must one bow forever at the feet of the true body? One look at the likeness she left behind, and care is already gone. The power that sees and what is seen come to an end, and one is freed from hearing sound; what is emptied and the emptying are made whole, and that power is finer still. I would wish to gain the body and form of Sakra (爍迦羅), for this body of mine is not firm, like a boat hidden in a valley.
Interlinear notes 2
所觀能觀
This is what is seen and the power that sees.
能空所空
This is the power to empty and what is emptied.
性海圓澄本不流。有遭淪墊莫懲由。但依我聖圓融覺。更有何人苦惱憂。若着倒聞猶未返。終成幻翳又誰尤。我雖解道元無實。出世難於陸轉舟。
The sea of nature is round and clear and does not of itself flow, yet it undergoes drowning and sinking and cannot chastise the cause of it. But if one leans only upon our Saint's wholly fused awakening, what person then is left to suffer and to grieve? If one clings to hearing upside down and still does not turn back, in the end it becomes an illusory screen—and then whom shall one blame? I may say I understand the Way, but in truth there is nothing solid in me; to get free of the world is harder than rolling a boat over dry land.
云何根境似澄流。聞復塵銷豈是由。空性已圓寧有念。衆生未度不無憂。侯門遣像心非表。釋苑推師行蔑尤。頃刻安能離我聖。卽如渡海也無舟。
How is it that root and realm are like clear flowing water? That hearing returns and the dust is extinguished—how should that be without cause? The empty nature is already whole: what thought could there be? The living beings are not yet ferried across: there is no being without care. That the image was sent from a lord's house—the heart of it was not for show; that the house of the Buddha pushes him forward as master—his conduct is without flaw. For even a moment, how could one bear to leave our Saint? It would be like crossing the sea with no boat at all.
微塵國土澤方流。與樂伊何請說由。必待有憂方與樂。本來無樂孰爲憂。翻思濁劫無遮念。能悅迷倫是最尤。弟子歸依尋自誓。生生願作苦河舟。
Over lands and soils like motes of dust your bounty is now flowing; what is this giving of joy? I beg you, tell me the reason. If you must wait until there is grief before you give joy, then when there is no joy to begin with, who is it that grieves? Turning it over in thought: in this muddied age, with thought that nothing obstructs, to be able to gladden the straying throng—this is the most excellent of all. Your disciple takes refuge in you and thereupon swears to himself: birth after birth, may I become a boat that ferries over the river of suffering.