Snow in August (12 page)

[
Enter Right Master running while holding a torch
.

Right Master:

It’s burning! It’s burning! My house is burning down!

(
Exit running, his mouth spitting fire
.)

Layman C:

The fire burns the cat,

And the cat runs away,

People stomp their feet,

On this blasted day!

Wrong Master:

Is this the trick you have in store?

How can you get to the other shore?

Old Master:

Amitabha! (
Exit
.)

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings loudly
.)

Dhya—na!

All Masters and Laymen:

(
Sing
.)

You’re crazy, I’m crazy,

You’re crazy, I’m crazy.

Small craziness is just not having it,

Big craziness reveals the true spirit!

Crowd:

(
Enter Layman A carrying a package wrapped in cloth
.)

(
Shout one after another
.)

Catch him!

Stop him!

Block his way!

Close him off!

Don’t let the guy get away!

[
All, standing all over the stage, surround Layman A. Enter Old Master and Big Master, who is holding a big axe
.

Le Feu 火　Gao Xingjian　94.5 × 67 cm　1991

Old Master:

(
Pointing at Layman A
.)

That scumbag started it all! It’s all his fault!

Big Master:

What’s going on here?

Layman A:

(
Giggling
.)

The cat started it all, all by itself—

Big Master:

Bring it over here!

[
Layman A hands over the cloth package. Big Master takes it and holds it steady on a stump and chops it with his axe in one go. Silence. Crowd disperse. Enter Right Master carrying an unlit torch
.

Right Master:

It’s all over.

Big Master:

What’s all over?

[
Silence. Fire gradually rises upstage
.

Big Master:

Go! Go! Go! The worship hall has become a mad playhouse. This is no place to linger. Go away and make your own living! (Exit.)

Singsong Girl:

(
Plays the strings and sings
.)

Dhya—na!

All Masters:

(
Sing in chorus
.)

Great wisdom is to reach the other shore,

Great mercy is to have an ordinary heart.

All Laymen:

(
Sing in chorus
.)

The brick carriers carry the bricks,

The cleaners do the cleaning up.

[
Everybody cleans up the stage while singing. Among them, one laughs out loud, one cries endlessly, one waves his hand, and one keeps on staring. Singsong Girl walks towards front stage, swaying her body
.

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

The writer pushes his pen,

The butcher holds his cleaver.

In health you enjoy a cup of tea,

In sickness the drugs administer.

Writer:

(
Comes forward and sings
.)

The baker kneads his dough,

The sewage collector wakes up early.

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

The baby cries,

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

It’s born.

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

The old man noiselessly

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

Passes away.

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

The lights are turned on,

Like many guns cracking at the same time,

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

Cannons go “boom, boom,”

On the other side of the river.

All Masters:

(
Sing
.)

The dead are sleeping, they’re not moving,

All Laymen:

(
Sing
.)

The living have to live, and live happily!

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

House buyers buy their houses,

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

Smile sellers sell their smiles.

All Laymen:

(
Sing
.)

Pile drivers drive their piles every day,

All Masters:

(
Sing
.)

When old bridges crumble new ones are built.

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

The world was like this in the beginning,

Singsong Girl:

(
Sings
.)

Even if the Tai Mountain falls in a moment,

Or the Jade Mountain refuses to die,

People look for troubles themselves.

Writer:

(
Sings
.)

The night rain hits the banana leaves,

When a light carriage passes by,

The wind murmurs.

All Masters and Laymen:

(
Sing
.)

Tonight and tomorrow morning,

It’s the same, the same, just the same,

Tonight and tomorrow morning,

It’s goin’ to be wonderful just the same,

Still wonderful just the same!

[
The end
.

Paris, November 1997

Présence 自在　Gao Xingjian　89 × 86 cm　1997

Notes

P. 1, line 1:
Snow in August

Snow in August
was first written in Chinese in 1997. Since then it has undergone several revisions. The script was first published in 2000 in Taipei (Lianjing Chubanshe 聯經出版社). Then a revised edition was included in
Gao Xingjian juzuo xuan
高行健劇作選 (Selected plays by Gao Xingjian) (Hong Kong: Ming Pao Press, 2001). Gao also wrote an opera version, in which he added many songs, for the 2002 production in Taipei. The script of the opera version was published in
Performing Arts Journal
《台灣戲專學刊》, No. 5, December 2002, and in the program
August Snow
八月雪 (Taipei: Council for Cultural Affairs, Executive Yuan, 2002). The source text of my translation is the 2001 version in
Gao Xingjian juzuo xuan
, which according to Gao Xingjian, is the latest version.

The literal translation of the title 八月雪 is “Snow in the eighth month of the lunar calendar.” Depending on the year, the eighth month of the lunar calendar usually falls in late August or September. Huineng died on the third day of the eighth month, when it was quite possibly still August in the Roman calendar. The time was still late summer in southern China, thus the peculiarity and unnaturalness of snow. I have translated 八月 as “August” because the weather in September in many parts of the world can be quite cool and snow is unusual but not unheard of, and “snow in September” would not be seen as strange as it is described in the play.

P. 1, line 8: Boundless Treasure 無盡藏

The literal meaning of Wujincang 無盡藏 is “repertory of boundless merits.” Wujincang was also the name of a Buddhist nun. As recorded in
Xu biqiuni zhuan
續比丘尼傳 (Biographies of Buddhist nuns, second volume) and other books, she once met Huineng when she was reciting the Nirvana Sutra and was surprised by the fact that he could clearly elucidate the tenets of the sutra despite his illiteracy.

P. 1, line 9: Hongren 弘忍 (602-675)

Tang Dynasty Zen master. It was said that he was a child prodigy. He met the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin when he was only seven and became a disciple. Later he succeeded Daoxin and was chosen as the Fifth Patriarch. His two most famous disciples were Huineng and Shenxiu. Huineng was the founder of the Southern School of Sudden Enlightenment and Shenxiu was the founder of the Northern School of Gradual Enlightenment.

P. 1, line 10: Shenxiu 神秀 (c. 606-706)

Tang Dynasty Zen master. When he was young, he studied the Confucian classics and prepared himself for the civil examination. (Some biographies say that he studied Daoism before joining the Buddhist order.) He probably became a monk around the age of fifteen. Later he went to see Hongren, who took him in as a disciple and made him First Instructor of the temple. After Hongren’s death, Shenxiu left the temple and practiced Dhuta asceticism in his travels. As his fame spread, Empress Wu summoned him to the capital and bestowed on him the title of Abbot of the Two Capitals and Teacher of Three Kingdoms. He was known as the founder of the School of Gradual Enlightenment in Zen Buddhism.

P. 1, line 13: Yinzong 印宗 (627-713)

Tang Dynasty Zen master. He became a monk when he was very young and was a student of Hongren. An expert in the sutras, he was famous for writing a book entitled
Niepan
涅盤 (Nirvana). The emperor once summoned him to serve at a temple in the capital city, but he refused. He met Huineng at Dharma Nature Temple and performed the ordination ceremony for him.

P. 1, line 14: Shenhui 神會 (c. 684-c. 758)

Tang Dynasty Zen master. When he was young he studied Confucianism and Daoiam before converting to Buddhism and becoming a monk at the age 40. (Some books claim that he was Huineng’s “boy disciple” at age thirteen or fourteen, but scholars have proved this false.) A student of Huineng, he attacked the rival School of Gradual Enlightenment and was largely responsible for the revival and rise of Huineng’s School of Sudden Enlightenment. Later he helped financed government troops in their campaign against the rebels during the An Lushan Rebellion. After the campaign, he was honored by the imperial court and given a temple at the capital to promulgate the teaching of the School of Sudden Enlightenment, which became the dominant force in Buddhism in China. He was known as the Seventh Patriarch of the Southern School of Zen Buddhism in China.

P. 1, line 17: Fahai 法海 (?-?)

Tang Dynasty Zen master. It was reported that he was immediately enlightened upon hearing Huineng’s teaching of self-nature. There is not much information about his life, except that he was Huineng’s disciple and he recorded the master’s words which became
Tan jing
壇經 (Platform Sutra). He also wrote a short preface to the book.

P. 3, 7th line from bottom: wooden fish 木魚

A percussion instrument made of a hollow wooden block, used by Buddhist monks and nuns to mark rhythm while chanting scriptures.

P. 3, 3rd line from bottom:
kasaya
袈裟

A patchwork robe worn by a Buddhist monk or nun.

P. 4, line 14: Amitabha 阿彌陀佛

Amida Buddha (literally “boundless light”) is the highest Buddha in the Western Heaven; also the Buddha of infinite change and infinite life. As personification of mercy, compas-sion, wisdom and love, Ambitabha has become the supreme object of devotion and faith in the Pure Land Sects in China and Japan. The expression “Amitabha” is the abbrevi-ated form of “Namah Amitabha” 南無阿彌陀佛, meaning “Hear us, O Amida Buddha.”

P. 7, 4th line from bottom:
Bodhi
菩提

Supreme wisdom or enlightenment, necessary for the attainment of Buddhahood.

P. 9, line 2:
Dharma
法

The teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha taught people enlightenment, so
Dharma
often refers to the “Way” or “Wath” to enlightenment.

P. 10, lines 16-17: Lankavatara Sutra 楞伽經

A major sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. In the Lankavatara Sutra, enlightenment is regarded in terms of intuitive realization where the only reality is “absolute mind.”