Yet, notwithstanding the doctrine of impermanency, we are told in another dodoitsu that—
He who was never bewitched by the charming smile of a woman,
A wooden Buddha is he—a Buddha of bronze or stone![21]
[21] Much more amusing in the original:—
Adana é-gao ni
Mayowanu mono wa
Ki-Butsu,—kana-Butsu,—
Ishi-botoké
"Charming-smile-by bewildered-not, he-as-for, wood-Buddha, metal-Buddha, stone-Buddha!" The term "Ishi-botoké" especially refers to the stone images of the Buddha placed in cemeteries.—This song is sung in every part of Japan; I have heard it many times in different places.
And why a Buddha of wood, or bronze, or stone? Because the living Buddha was not so insensible, as we are assured, with jocose irreverence, in the following:—
"Forsake this fitful world"!—
{Lord Buddha's}
that was or teaching!
{upside-down }
And Ragora,[22] son of his loins?—was he forgotten indeed?
There is an untranslatable pun in the original, which, if written in Romaji, would run thus:—
Uki-yo we sutéyo t'a
{Shaka Sama}
Sorya yo
{saka-sama }
Ragora to iū ko we
Wasurété ka?
Shakamuni is the Japanese rendering of "Sakyamuni;" "Shaka Sama" is therefore "Lord Sakya," or "Lord Buddha." But saka-sama is a Japanese word meaning "topsy-turvy," "upside down;" and the difference between the pronunciation of Shaka Sama and saka-sama is slight enough to have suggested the pun. Love in suspense is not usually inclined to reverence.