Well, no matter. I am not angry. I just want to ask you to find me a nice spot
in Hell if you get there before me: somewhere not too close to the Mountain of
Needles, please.
I don’t intend to stay too long in Hell,
mind you. I have been learning recently
that mortals are occasionally able to travel in and out of Hell, if they are
especially clever or lucky.
A famous Irish writer and translator called
Seamus Heaney died recently and I read a little of his translation of Virgil’s
Aeneid, written two thousand years ago in the Roman era. Below is a short, edited extract. This is from an older translation, describing
the beginning of one hero’s descent into Hell to have a chat with his dead
father, Anchises. Perhaps he needed to
find out where his dear dad had hidden his cash-box?
After that I’ll offer a comparison with a
Japanese idea of Hell, and a way to escape.
It is an edited extract from “The spider’s thread” by Ryunosuke
Akutagawa.
*
An edited extract from Virgil’s “Aeneid” (circa
19 b.c.):
“One thing I pray for:
Here the gate opens, they say
To the King of the Underworld’s realms,
and here
In these shadowy marshes where the
River of the Dead floods
To the surface, grant me one lookOne face to face meeting with my dear father.”
It is easy to descend into Hell.
Death’s dark door stands open day and night.
But to retrace your steps and get
back to upper air:
That is the task, that is the difficulty.
Only a few have succeeded.”
An edited extract from “The spider’s thread”
(1918) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa:
One day, the Buddha was strolling alone
along the edge of a lotus pond in Paradise.
After a time, the Buddha paused at the edge
of the pond and from between the lotus leaves that covered it saw a glimpse of
the state of things below. Now this celestial
pond just happened to lie directly over Hell, and peering through that crystal-clear
water was like looking through a magnifying glass at the River of Death and the
Mountain of Needles.
The Buddha saw there, in the depths of
Hell, a single man writhing along with the other sinners. This man was named Kandata and had been a notorious
thief who had performed murder and arson and other acts of evil. In his past, however, he had performed just
one good deed: whilst walking through the forest, he had raised his foot to
avoid needlessly killing a small spider.
Looking down on the captives in
Hell, the Buddha recalled this kind act.
On a lotus leaf beside him, the Buddha saw a single spider spinning out
a web of silver thread...
Kandata was floating and sinking along with
the other sinners in the Lake of Blood at the bottom of Hell. It was pitch black no matter which way
he looked, and the occasional glimpse of light that he would see in the
darkness would turn out just to be a glint of light from the terrible Mountain
of Needles. How lonely he must have
felt! The great thief Kandata could only
squirm like a dying frog as he choked in the Lake of Blood.
But one day, raising up his head and
glancing at the sky above the lake, in the empty darkness Kandata saw a silver
spider’s thread being lowered from Heaven...
*There are a few things in common between the classical Greek and Roman legends of Hell, and the Japanese one presented by Akutagawa. You enter Hell by crossing the River of Death. And on your way out of Hell, you never look back! I hope you are paying attention, Kandata. I said, “As you climb out of Hell, don’t look back. Kandata, are you listening?”
Vocabulary:
circa – Used before dates: about;
approximately
a realm – a land; a kingdom
a marsh - an area of land that is
constantly or regularly flooded or covered by water
to retrace one’s steps – to go back the way
one has come
celestial – Heavenly; in the Heavens; in
the skies
to writhe – to twist one’s body, as when in
extreme pain or discomfort
a sinner – someone who has committed
immoral or bad acts
notorious – famous for being bad or evil
etc.
arson – the crime of deliberately starting
a fire
a captive – a prisoner; someone who has
been captured
pitch black – completely black, like tar
to squirm – to writhe; to twist one’s body
in discomfort
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