Introduction

Siddhartha-Introduction-300x120 The “Journey of Siddhartha”, dedicated to my son Philip, is a very free translation (really “transcreation”) of the wonderful but too little known poem on the Life of the Buddha

Part One - The Chain of Existence

sid-1-300x120 Upon the first link of the chain,
An old man climbs again
On pathways he has never seen,

Part Two - The Beginning

sid-2-300x120 Suddhodana, I dreampt, and I was lying on my left side,
Tired from our long midsummer festival.
I had sent soldiers with jars for water

Part Three - Reality

sid3-300x120 But shall he leave his people, in my age
Let me fall heirless, from my throne?
Shall he be nameless on the final page

Part Four - The Going-Forth

Then through the whole town the king’s proclamation
was heard in the ringing of bells:
That on the seventh day, the glorious prince, with his retinue,

Part Five - the Confrontation

The shyness of the women
Then from that city-garden they came forth
To give him pleasure, and to honor him in all obedience

Part Six - The Resolution

sid6-300x120 “Now Prince”, Udayin said, “there are three
Marks of a true friend.
One Is to defend one from adversity;

The Journey of Siddhartha

by Walter M. Spink

Recorded July 2014 at Solid Sound Studio, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Walter Spink: narrative | Marcus Wise: tabla | Bruce Hamm: sarod

The Journey of Siddhartha, written with the encouragement of Archibald Macleish when I was a graduate student studying Indian Art History at Harvard 1950-1952, owes much to the remarkable Buddhacarita, (the story of the Buddha) of the 1st-2nd century poet Asvaghosa, beautifully translated by E. H. Johnson (1928). I have drawn freely upon Asvaghosa'a exuberant use of imagery, fusing the dramatic elements of that great writer's story with the eternal concerns of love and time and death similarly embedded in the psyche of a twenty-four-year-old starting off on the same journey.

The idea of putting Asvaghosa's beautiful (even if transformed) poem to the music of appropriate Indian instruments came from my two well-known musician friends, Marcus Wise (tabla) and Bruce Hamm (sarod). Both have studied and performed widely in concerts and recordings in the USA and India.

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