meaning?
What? Must the infantry charge of meaning follow the cannonading of your quatrains, to complete the rout?
Dada
Just one word to make you understand. It means, that if the bamboos were no better than those noisy instruments——
No, Dada, we must not understand.
I defy you to make us understand.
Dada, if you use force to make us understand we shall use force to force ourselves not to understand.
Dada
The gist of the quatrain is this, that if we do no good to the world, then——
Then the world will be very greatly relieved.
Dada
There is another verse that makes it clearer:
There are numerous stars in the midnight sky,
Which hang in the air for no purpose;
If they would only come down to earth,
For the street lighting they might be useful.
I see we must make clearer our meaning. Catch him. Let's raise him up, shoulder high, and take him back to his den.
Dada
Why are you so excited to-day? Have you any particular business to do?
Yes, we have very urgent business,—very urgent indeed.
Dada
What is your business about?
We are out to seek a play for our Spring festival.
Dada
Play! Day and night, play!
(They sing.)
We are free, my friends, from the fear of work,
For we know that work is play,— the play of life.
It is Play, to fight and toss, between life and death;
It is Play that flashes in the laughter of light in the infinite heart;
It roars in the wind, and surges in the sea.
Oh, here comes our Leader. Brothers—our Leader, our Leader.
Leader
Hallo! What a noise you make!
Was it that which made you come out of doors?
Leader
Yes.
Well, we did it for that very purpose.
Leader
You don't want me to remain indoors?
Why remain indoors? This outer world has been made with a lavish expenditure of sun and moon and stars. Let us enjoy it, and then we can save God's face for indulging in such extravagance.
Leader
What were you discussing?
This:
(They sing.)
Play blooms in flower and ripens in fruit
In the sunshine of eternal youth.
Play bursts up in the blood-red fire, and licks into ashes the decaying and the dead.
Our Dada's objection was about this play.
Dada
Shall I tell you the reason why?
Yes, Dada, you may tell us, but we shan't promise to listen.
Dada
Here it is:
Time is the capital of work,
And Play is its defalcation.
Play rifles the house, and then wastes its spoil,
Therefore the wise call it worse than useless.
Chandra
But surely, Dada, you are talking nonsense. Time itself is Play. Its only object is Pas-time.
Dada
Then what is Work?
Chandra
Work is the dust raised by the passing of Time.
Dada
Leader, you must give us your answers.
Leader
No. I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership.
Dada
Everything else has its limits, but your childishness is absolutely unbounded.
Do you know the reason? It is because we are really nothing but children. And everything else has its limitations except the child.
Dada
Won't you ever attain Age?
No, we shall never attain Age.
We shall die old, but never attain Age.
Chandra
When we meet Age, we shall shave his head, and put him on a donkey, and send him across the river.
Oh, you can save yourself the trouble of shaving his head for Age is bald.
(They sing.)
Our hair shall never turn grey,
Never.
There is no blank in this world for us, no break in our road,
It may be an illusion that we follow,
But it shall never play us false,
Never.
(The Leader sings.)
Our hair shall never turn grey,
Never.
We will never doubt the world and shut our eyes to ponder.
Never.
