Buddha Translated

I believe it was Buddha that said, Life is pain, however translations over thousands of years can get rather distorted. The Cantonese was translated to Mandarin, later translated into Greek and Latin, and then for some reason back into Mandarin and Cantonese. The first translation into English was found at the bottom of a Bazooka bubble gum comic where it said, Fortune: Life is Pain. Buddha.

Modern scholars that have revisited the ancient manuscripts have discovered that the true translation was closer to Life is life, which was followed up by Pain is pain, but as simple as these statements seem, they still ring with a depth one can ponder for quite some time. With this thinking one could easily add, Goats are goats, or my favorite, What time is lunch?

Discussing philosophy of this sort raised the question if Buddha was hungry and simply wanted a sandwich from the famous bakery cafe, Au Bon Pain. Not being an expert in ancient Chinese language I may be Confucius. I think I’ll go make a sandwich.

Time Brats at Camden Library

Swamp Boggers and Time Brats
My reading of Snotgrass at the Camden Library was completely taken over by the Time Brats! What a hoot it was to make so much noise inside a library. We all took turns telling strange tales of mythical Maine beasts. The night turned into all of us sharing stories told to us by our grandparents and elders. I heard about several old Maine story tellers: Buckwheat Shed and Frisco Ireland, strange tall tales of bear hunting at the Houlton dump, and how to catch Bigfoot using peanut butter. We made up a new local monster and called it the Camden Crawler. Here the kids display the handmade Swamp Boggers I brought along. Thanks one and all for coming out on a rainy Maine evening!

Check out the Camden Time Brats in action: