The "Dew" Imagery
Part III
Hiroshi Kitagawa
I
Dew is a tiny drop of water, hence the image of anything very small in degree, extent, measure and proportions.
Taking a morning walk in summer or early autumn, we feel refreshed
1)
to find a clump of tsuybllezesa (dayflower) in moist soil along the roadside.With a very small pair of sky blue petals among lanceolate leaves, the flower is easily missed unless we are careful to notice it among the tufts and tussocks of grass. It blooms in such a quiet and self-effacing manner that it not only gives us a refreshing exhilaration but also stirs an aesthetic sense in terms of our traditional virtues, such as modesty, discretion and self-restramt.
It must be noted that this aesthetic sense is exalted by the ephemeral quality of dew, for the bipinnate petals of tsuyukusa fold tegether only to
disappear without waiting for the midday, in the same manner as dew
vanishes in the sun. "Frailty, thy name is dew."
This ephemeral quality of tsuyukusa reminds us of "The
Sensitive-Plant" composed by the romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley:
A Sensitive-Plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan-like Ieaves to the light,
220 {SMJhfyntrzEEZI, X.,.".S tc (ng 285•286 ?)
2)
And clothed them beneath the kisses of night.
A sensitive plant, also known as a humble plant, has bipinnate Ieaves whose leaflets close up and recoil when touched. From this special quality comes the Japanese name for the plant "ojigisd (bowing grass) " or "nemuri-gusa (sleeping grass) ." It is interesting to note that in naming the plant the English thought of an abstract word like "sensitive" or "humble," while the Japanese thought of a behavioral word like "bowing" or "sleeping." In contrast to the humble quality of a sensitive plant, dew in the quoted
stanza suggests the Western image of shining beauty enhanced by the
adjective "silver." The line "And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light" connotes nothing but the surging delight in seeing the fan-like leaflets glistening with "silver" dew among many spring flowers, such as violets, wind-flowers, tulips, and hyacinths. Shelley's sensitive plant in a garden is vibrantly fresh.
The following is a poem entitled "Tsuyukusa" composed by the modern
[
Japanese poet, Sakamoto Yoshigoro.
Morning. Wet with dew, I walked across a field. Tsuyukusa with blue eyes stared at me From among the tufts of grass,
From a vast plain. Blue eyes, sky blue light.
Dew on the tip of a leaf bathed in the sun And shone blue, red-like a rainbow Only to vanish.
And yet tsuyukusa were all in sky blue With no intent to show off or change
They remained blue with quiet pride.
Tiny tsuyukusa
Spread sky blue all over the field. When night came they folded together, Leaving blue scent all around.
Blue tsuyukusa, tiny tsuyukusa
Becomes a small universe, each to each, And claims its small raison d'eAtre.
Tsuyukusa,
Tiny flowers, blue flowers.
Modest though you are,
You are the lives of midsummer grass.
No one can harm you.
You call to everybody.
And you Iove everybody.
A tiny being,
A blue drop of yours Soaks through the earth And pierces the heaven. Tiny tsuyukusa, scattering blue,
You are a decent view
In the refreshing summer.
3)
Tiny tsuyukusa.
Sakamoto sees in tsuyukusa all qualities that belong to dew. Tiny drops of dew are personified as "blue eyes." Blue is a beautiful, aquatic color, but it does not stand out against the green grass. It goes unnoticed unless it is carefully watched. As a sensitive reaction to this subtle coloration and
222 reMJijfyRgttEEk..,.E Asc (ag 285 • 286 e)
noticeably small size of the flower, the Japanese adore tsuyukusa as a flower of modesty, discretion and self-restraint, and once it attracts their eyes, it remains "quiet blue." We do not know exactly what smell it gives out, but the poet's imagination wafts far and wide with tiny, blue tsuyukusa all over the field. What a pleasant sight it is!
The stem of tsuyukusa is as low as one foot high and even the highest one is less than two feet. The lower stems trail along the ground, branching off in many directions. This biological property is justified by Sakamoto's keen observation.
The reader is given the impression that the poet consistently empha-sizes the color "blue"-"blue eyes," "blue light," "sky blue," "blue with quiet pride," "spread sky blue all over the field," "blue scent," "blue tsuyukusa," "blue flowers," and "scattering blue." Here too, the poet's observation proves correct when we consider the fact that the blue sap of tsuyukusa has
4)
been used as a fabric dye since the early part of the 7th century. It is no wonder that tsuyukusa is also known as "aobana (blue flower)."
All considered, however, what is most impressive in Sakamoto's
"Tsuyukusa" is that he is speaking to tsuyukusa with his recognition of its raison d'eAtre as a small universe. A drop of dew is a tiny being, but it "soaks through the earth and pierces the heaven." The poet envisions in•a drop of dew an enormously large being, that is a universe.
II
At this point the writer must refer to the Zen priest Ddgen (1200-1253)
who commented on a drop of dew in his great work, The Shobo-genzo
(Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), as follows:
The "Dew" Imagery 223
itself on the water. (At this time) the moon will not get wet, nor is the water broken. The moon-light, however vast, reflects itself on a small
quantity of water. The whole moon and the whole sky both reflect
themselves even in a dewdrop on the grass or in a drop of water. (In this
case) as the moon never breaks the water, so enlightenment never
destroys the man. As the dewdrop never obstructs (the reflection of) the
moon, so a man never obstructs (the coming of) enlightenment. The
deeper (the moon reflects itself on the water], the higher (the moon is). We should realize that the long and short time are quite one with the large
5>
and small of water, and the broad and narrow of the moon.
Satori or enlightenment is the heart of the Buddhist faith, and Zen Buddhists believe that it can be achieved by the practice of meditation. Zen practice primarily consists of zazen (meditation in the lotus posture) and the study of leo-an (questions given by a Zen master for meditation) . Prac-tice in the S6td school, founded by D6gen in Japan, emphasizes the sitting meditation of zazen, while that in the Rinzai school, transmitted by Eisai
(1141-1215) from China, though acknowledging the value of zazen, encour-ages its practitioners to concentrate on the contemplation of riddlelike k6an to progress in meditation.
The practices of zazen and k6an study are directed toward the inner experience of enlightenment. D6gen, however, opposed the Rinzai use of k6an as a focus for contemplation, for he felt that the sudden, intuitive enlightenment that the k6an were meant to achieve indicated a perception with momentary experience. This was too self-assertive a method, stressing the attainment of a given state and over-emphasizing mental perception. D6gen felt that the "whole man" should participate in the experience of enlightenment.
224 igNJbXNtsfiEeft..,.imJk k (ag 285 • 286 e)
To this end he minimized the value of the kdan and stressed that of zazen-a discipline of meditation without thought of acquisition or attain-ment. For DOgen, Buddhahood is not a "sudden understanding" but a state constant throughout life, and so there must be no thought of achieving an "end." Rather, Buddhahood must be realized more and more deeply through constant awareness. Buddhahood grows with each effort; it does not spring, as the Rinzai stated, into sudden complete being. Life is a work of art which must be experienced completely, and Zen is its flowering.
In any case, satori is a mystical experience that does not lend itself to definition. The inner experience can only be described and interpreted. Certain characterjstics are clearly evident in the descriptions of satori, and
the suddenness of the experience has been set down as one mark of Zen
enlightement. Many accounts of satori describe it as a merging or becoming one with the whole universe.
It is precisely in this state of mind when man becomes one with the whole universe that D6gen in the Shobo-genzo Iikens satori to a tiny being
like a dewdrop receiving the whole moon and the whole sky. Likewise,
Sakamoto in his poem "Tsuyukusa" becomes one with a dewdrop, soaks
through the earth, and pierces the heaven. "Dewdrop" is nothing but a
metaphorical word to be understood as Sakamoto himself. D6gen in the
Shobo-gen2o continues:
While our body and mind are not yet filled with the Law, we think that we have had enough of it. On the contrary, however, when our body and mind are filled, we think something is lacking. For example, when we look around our boat on the mountainless ocean, we see nothing but the circular shape of the ocean. But this large ocean is not circular or square. Its other shapes and movements are innumerable. It is like a palace (to
The "Dew" Imagery 225
fish). It is like a necklace (to celestial beings). Only as far as the eye can reach, it temporarily appears circular. This is also the case with all things. All things, worldly and unworldly, have various aspects, but we can see and realize them only through practical understanding. In ing the essence of all things, we should realize that besides circular or square shapes there are many other aspects and movements of the ocean or mountains and that we have worlds in the four directions. We must realize that it is so not only around us but also right here, or even in a 6)
drop of water.
What D6gen means by "worlds in the four directions" is "the whole
world," and by "right here" is "within ourselves." Becoming one with a tiny drop of water, he accepts the whole world. This kind of experience in total unity or oneness must be accompanied by surging joy, that is what Bud-dhists call "dharma rapture."
III
The English poet, Andrew Marvell (1621-78), focused his mind on a
drop of dew and composed the following poem:
ON A DROP OF DEW
See how the orient dew,
Shed from the Bosom of the Morn
Into the blowing roses, Yet careless of its mansion new; For the clear region where 'twas born Round in itself incloses;
226 vaNjhXRtsEEdk..,.imJStR (ng 285 • 286 e) And in its little globe's extent, Frames as it can its native element. How it the purple flower does slight, Scarce touching where it lies,
But gazing back upon the skies,
Shines with a mournful light;
Like its own tear,
Because so long divided from the shere. Restless it rolls and unsecure,
Trembling lest it grow impure,
Till the warm sun pity its pain, And to the skies exhale it back again. So the soul, that drop, that ray Of the clear fountain of eternal day, Could it within the human flower be seen, Remembering still its former height,
Shuns the sweet leaves and blossoms green;
And, recollecting its own light,
Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express The greater heaven in an heaven less.
In how coy a figure wound,
Every way it turns away:
So the world excluding round,
Yet receiving in the day.
Dark beneath, but bright above:
Here disdaining, there in love.
How loose and easy hence to go,
How girt and ready to ascend;
The "Dew" Imagery 227
Moving but on a point below,
It all about does upward bend. Such did the manna's sacred dew distill'
'
White, and entire, though congealed and chill. Congealed on earth: but does, dissolving, run
7)
Into the glories of th' almighty sun.
Unlike Sakamoto and D6gen, Marvell is consistently objective in
dealing with dew. It can be noted that the first eighteen lines, governed by the injunction to "See," describe the physical characteristics of the dew on the rose. He is, however, not second to praise the beauty inherent to dew, glorifying it as the orient ("pearl-like" and "born at sunrise") dew/Shed
8)
from the Bosom of the Morn (the womb of the morning) . He sees that the dew falls to earth from the sky, the "clear region," and dwelling on the "blooming roses," closes itself in the little globe. Furthermore, he sees that the the dew which descended from heaven, "gazes back upon the skies,/ Shines with a mournful light." In his mind's eye the dew does not stay at rest
but "rolls" and "trembles" yearning for home in the sky. In the next
eighteen lines Marvell apply these details of his observation to the situation of the soul in the body. A four-line coda relates both the dew and the soul
9)
to the biblical story of the manna in the desert. This is an allusion to the miraculous food that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness, which fell with the dew by night and melted in the heat of the sun by day.
Compared with the static dew perceived by Sakamoto and D6gen,
Shelley's and Marvell's is moving or dynamic. In "The Sensitive-Plant" the silver dew develops into the "dew riding in the clouds lies Iike fire in the flowers and wanders like spirits among the spheres (11. 86-88) ," and into a "freezing dew (1. 108) ." Marvell's dew, too, is moving but on a point below,
228 tsNJhWrkEff:-eA...imJtk (eg 285•286 e)
ready to ascend, and though congealed and chill, runs into the glories of the almighty sun. All the same, at one point the poets, either English or Japanese, can share a ,cosmic view of dew. The attitude of observation taken by these poets in the east and the west is different, subjective or objective, but because of the shape of the globe, they all envision a large sphere in a small one, that is in a drop of dew.
Notes
1) Literally "dew grass."2) Quotations from Shelley's poems are all based on Shelley's Poet7y and Prose selected
and edited by Donald H. Reiman and Sharon B. Powers (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1977)
3) Translated into English by the writer from the poem which appears in Kihachiro Okuda's Sensai Shil'in Sakamoto Yoshigoro Kenkyu- (A Study on Sakamoto Yoshigoro, a Sensitive Poet) (Kagoshima: Kokuritsu Kaya Taiiku Daigaku, 1990) pp.149-52. The
entire poem in Japanese runs as follows:
oto<"
ew <"t. es vz utn'( nLe e 2ts < . Dva) < 6 bs', Nv> g ("o ?" v)(v) 6. ,Eestdigtr6orpabts6, th v) tn. D CgehE 6,Ev"H, 6Dv"4a))t.
-EI)thst-(Dmp < "O ecftdi agh>"wa)t ig S Ct -(fi, ifik k L -( V: e V) 6 e: thts rbs'Jil) v) khst,
re t"Lel ti ti) k ti) ?lj 251tr '( L k D ke
tihs'oto < 6ei 6 D ts-ts,
Ndih} g' O fi S tE{kS tsr v)bs' eshvat ta o es o(Es re ts o("6.
fjNi tLc- )V(}) < 6, 6 D C!L a)aas Er fitr. v) D e fv), za FH7 v)k6 t l6 C: U6 Ct'(v) 6. -gl)ht-(KV:U6t, JItbCiLegeoJ3L, JltftV: ts ts ibn(fiv)as D <"h te O eoDtg. fiV)DVÅë < $, !JN6 tLgOV9) < ".
-D--) h{k i"L e 9a) iJx+h ta t tg D (
ilN 6 tx JffJfil a)iE-M e Eilwt L '( v) 6 .
DVQ) < 5, iJN5 ts lE, Ev) rb
lt L re L lt" ths'
? tui fins ts h)"t ta(" s tx v)
#EOwy"Ots56vidi6,
:•if e: -(" t) llgi u"hJb) et
:•ke: (" t eLltq s n
:•k (" s eL&gEtk -g- 6 .
iJx i tut JtrE
re a)-.g. a)gCi tts V: L ,J9L t b- O
-za:g("D6ut<.
iJx" tsoto < 5 ftv),fi"zl t Lk -e- hs'-l- th>" L viE a) 5 6 R? b: ig i. tz. iJN5 tr 'p V9) < $.4) JAPAN, an illustrated EnqycloPedia (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993) p. 1636.
5)-6) YUh6 Yokoi tr. The Shobo-gonzo (Tokyo: Sankibo Buddhist Book-store, 1986)
p. 3.
7) Andrew Marvell, Selected Poet73, and Prose, ed. Robert Wilcher (London: Methuen,
1986), pp. 18-19.
8) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, p. 674.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
