４１　水の音

蛙の詩人・草野心平の『冬眠』の本文は、
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　たったこれだけだ。
　詩人は七輪で魚の干物を焼いた。銭はない。いぶさなければ蚊が押し寄せる。毛深ければ刺されなくて済むがそうはいかない。しかし今の若者たちは七輪を知らない。使ったことはない。
　男が居酒屋で鱧の吸い物に箸をつけた。杉戸の節から灯りが漏れる。集まった虫たちに牛蛙が飛びつく。擬音の連続だ。時が経つにつれて擬音すら変わっていくのだろう。
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　〇△□は臨済宗の禅僧画家仙厓和尚の特許である。東京丸の内の出光美術館へ行けば実物がある。ガマの墨絵などもあり、「坐禅して人が仏になるならば」‥‥ いや、ガマの絵ではなかったかもしれない。柳に風だったか。仙厓という人は自分を語らない。●▲■を見て「おれを裏返すな」などというわけがない。●▲■と〇△□をゴチャ混ぜにすればガマのイボの模様である。角が取れてつながれば、縄文の模様にも近づいて行く。

カメやガマは長生きだ。相対性原理の見本だという。　
熊「なぜ見本なの？」
隠「速度を出すと時間が縮まる」
熊「おれはそのままだ」
隠「だから長生きしたことになる」

　こんなのはやめたほうが身にためだ。
そこで、身体を中心に両膝頭を六十度に出す。そうやって両膝と背骨で正三角形を作る。背骨が真っ直ぐに立つ。これが坐禅の基本形だ。どこでだってできる。三尺三寸先の床に目を落としたければ落とせばいい。作務とは普段の生活で身体を動かす雑用である。家事は作務のものだ。谷川俊太郎が「身体性を持った言葉は時代を超える可能性がある」といっていた。かゆいだの、鳥肌が立つだの、笑うだの、じんましんだの、こうした言葉は消えるはずがないというのだが。　

ガマの落とし穴は春先に抜いた杭の穴だ。草が生えてどこにあるか解らなくなる。落ちたら上がれないと宮沢賢治が書いている。彼が生きていた時代には、年次作業に長靴をはいて杭を抜く作業があったのだろう。

41.The Sound of Water
The main text of poem “Hibernation” (Tomin) by Kusano Shinpei, known as “the poet of frogs,” consists solely of:
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That is all there is.
The poet once grilled dried fish on a simple charcoal grill. He had no money. If he didn't smoke the fish, mosquitoes would swarm. If he were hairy he wouldn't get bitten, he thought, but that was not the case. Today's young people often do not know about charcoal grills. They have never used one.
A man dipped his chopsticks into conger eel soup at the izakaya (Japanese pub). Light seeped through the cedar door's joints. A bullfrog leapt at the gathered insects—a continuous stream of sound effects. As time passes, even the sound effects change.
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The 〇△□ pattern is the signature artwork of Zen monk and painter Sengai Gibon of the Rinzai school. You can see the actual painting at the Idemitsu Museum of Art in Marunouchi, Tokyo. There are also ink drawings of toads, and one inscription reads, “If sitting in zazen makes a human a Buddha…” No, maybe it wasn't a toad painting. Perhaps it was wind in the willows. Sengai never spoke of himself. He wouldn't look at ●▲■ and say, “Don't turn me inside out.” If you mix ●▲■ and 〇△□ together, you get the pattern of a toad's “warts”. If the corners soften and connect, the form approaches the pattern found in Jomon pottery.

Turtles and toads live long lives. They're said to be examples of the principle of relativity.
Kuma-san: “Why are they examples?”
Retired Man: “The faster you move, the slower time flows.”
Kuma-san: “I'm still the same.”
Retired Man: “That's why you’ve lived so long.”

It's better for you to stop doing things like this. So, position your body with both knees extended outward at 60 degrees. Form an equilateral triangle with your knees and spine. Keep your spine straight. This is the basic posture for zazen. You can do it anywhere. Look down at the floor about 3 feet ahead. Work is the chore of everyday life that gets the body moving. Housework is part of work. Tanikawa Shuntaro once said, “Words imbued with physicality have the potential to transcend time.” He meant that words like “itchy,” “goosebumps,” “laugh,” are never going to disappear.　
A frog's pitfall is the hole left by a stake pulled up in early spring. Grass grows over it, hiding its location. Miyazawa Kenji wrote that when something falls in, it cannot get out. In his time, there must have been an annual task where people wore rubber boots to pull out the stakes.