Gita II.19

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Both he who considers that to be slayer

And he who considers this to be slain

Fails to understand: this neither slays

nor is slain.

 

As is well known this famous verse is

taken from the Katha Upanishad but its

subsequent

literary adventures are less well known

and they may be of interest to some

members of the list.

 

Emerson and some of his circle

(especially Thoreau) were greatly

influenced by the Gita

(although they only had one copy of it

to go around)

and Emerson acknowledged his debt by

writing the poem _Brahma_ which begins

 

If the red slayer thinks he slays

Or the slain thinks he is slain

He little knows the ways I keep

Keep and pass and turn again.

 

The second line here is a word for word

translation from the Sanskrit but

it makes for outstandingly bad English

poetry, something that did not

escape the notice of Emerson's

contemporaries. So _Brahma_ spawned 30

odd

parodies within a month of its

publication. According to one of

Emerson's

biographers, Emerson invariably started

laughing whenever anybody began to

recite this one:

 

If the grey tom cat thinks he sings

Or the song thinks it be sung

He little knows who bootjacks flings

How many bricks at him I've flung

 

Regards,

 

Patrick