wise and bitter, strong
burning my dreams, am rich in
all that I have lost

Adapted from the poem, Memory by World War One soldier poet, Siegfried Sassoon.

For Veterans Day, 2020.

When I was young my heart and head were light,
And I was gay and feckless as a colt
Out in the fields, with morning in the may,
Wind on the grass, wings in the orchard bloom.
O thrilling sweet, my joy, when life was free
And all the paths led on from hawthorn-time
Across the carolling meadows into June.

But now my heart is heavy-laden. I sit
Burning my dreams away beside the fire:
For death has made me wise and bitter and strong;
And I am rich in all that I have lost.
O starshine on the fields of long-ago,
Bring me the darkness and the nightingale;
Dim wealds of vanished summer, peace of home,
And silence; and the faces of my friends

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon’s view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war so says Wikipedia.

listen, silent sound
2 minutes of memories
will we remember?

By chance I was up this past Sunday morning with the radio station I like from London playing.

In Great Britain, today was Remembrance Day, the day the day honoring the end of World War 1 and those who died in the war.

At 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, the time when the armistice was signed in France, Britain comes to a halt for a two minutes silence.

A tradition started in 1919 with this statement from George V, the Grand Father of Elizabeth II.

To all my people,
     Tuesday next, 11 November, is the first anniversary of the armistice, which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years, and marked the victory of right and freedom.
     I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.
     To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities.
     During that time, except in the rare cases where this may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.
     No elaborate organisation appears to be necessary.
     At a given signal, which could easily be arranged to suit the circumstances of each locality, I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be, and unite in this simple service of silence and remembrance.
           GEORGE R.I

This year by chance was the first time I had ever experienced the moment.

The presenter announced that it was time for the Two Minutes Silence and the radio station cut to a live microphone outside Westminster Abby .

The bell, Big Ben, tolled 11 times and the silence started.

It was two minutes of silent sound.

I am not sure what a silent sound sound likes.

Much like the color of water I guess.

But there is was on the radio for two minutes.

I am not sure how exactly this is observed through out the county but its a big deal for the Queen.

She wears her poppies.

Those pink paper flowers that everyone puts on in Britain during this week.

The poppies are also a remembrance of the World War 1 from the poem, In Flanders Fields, a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

The Queen wore her poppies and she observed they 2 minute silence and this year, she wore a mask.

She had flowers placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abby.

You remember that when her mother and father were married, her mother, Queen Elizabeth, left her wedding bouquet on the tomb as she left the Abby on the arm of her new husband.

I am sure when it was over the Queen said the expected words, “We will remember them.”

Not suckers.

Not losers.

We should remember them.

I hope we do.

confusion or shame
good deeds someone has done
before, defend them

Based on this line of poetry and thereby hangs a tale.

The line is:

In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,
The good deeds a man has done before defend him

The line was used by Dr.  J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Atomic Bomb project in World War 2.

The lines is purported to have been translated from by Dr. Oppenheimer from the Bhagavad Gita.

I will not try to explain what the Bhagavad Gita is as I don’t know that I can as I don’t know exactly what it is.

Dr. Oppenheimer remembered the lines out loud just prior to the first atomic bomb test in 1945.

Almost every book and biography about Dr. Oppenheimer or about the bomb have the quote.

They also have his more remembered and quoted quote when the bomb went off successfully, also from the Bhagavad Gita, that goes:

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

I am reading a book on the a bomb, fascinating stuff by the way, and came across todays quote and worked it into today’s haiku.

I wanted a citation.

The book cites the poetry as coming from Dr. Oppenheimer’s personal translation of the Bhagavad Gita.

Searching an online copy of the Gita, I could not come anywhere close to finding lines that reflected these thoughts and words.

I went Back to the Google.

It did not take long to one, find the original source and two, to learn it isn’t in the Gita AT ALL.

I have seen the quote cited to the Gita in countless books and articles.

Does anyone bother any more to check these things?

Does anyone higher editors and fact checkers anymore?

The quote actually comes from the the Śatakatraya, a work of Sanskrit poetry, comprising three collections of about 100 stanzas each by Bhartṛhari, a 5th century (CE) Sanskrit writer.

I am just to going to leave it at that rather than try to give any explanation of the Śatakatraya or the Bhagavad Gita as I don’t know the difference and I don’t know if it can be explained.

I will BET thought it cannot be explained in less than a fall term graduate level lecture class some where.

What Bhartṛhari wrote was:

vane raṇe śatrujalāgnimadhye
mahārṇave parvatamastake vā ।
sup‍taṃ pramattaṃ viṣamasthitaṃ vā
rakṣanti puṇyāni purākṛtāni ॥
nītiśataka

or

In a forest, in a battle, amongst enemies, amidst water or fire, in a vast ocean or on the tip of a mountain, while asleep, awake or in danger – virtuous deeds from (our) past are the protectors.

Where the Google can take you on a Saturday morning, I tell you.

Virtuous deeds from (our past are the protectors.

A good thought to start a Saturday in the midst of a pandemic and never ending election.

I do have to think about some of those figures in the election.

And I do have to ask, what if you have no good or virtuous deeds in your past?