Norman
27. Although I am thin, sick, and very weak, I go along leaning on a stick, having climbed the mountain.
28. I threw down my outer robe and turned my bowl upside down; I propped myself against a rock, tearing asunder the mass of darkness [of ignorance].
Weingast
Somehow I kept climbing—
though tired,
hungry,
and weak.
Old, too.
At the top of the mountain,
I spread my outer robe on a rock to dry,
set down my staff and bowl,
took a deep breath,
and looked around.
It was windy up there.
As I was leaning back
against a large gray rock,
the darkness I had carried
up and down
a million mountains—
slipped off my shoulders
and swept itself away
on the wind.
This poem continues Matty’s theme of robbing enlightened women of their agency and denying that enlightenment is a deliberate and effortful achievement.
In the original, Citta Theri “tears asunder” the mass of darkness. In Weingast’s poem, it “sweeps *itself* away” — “slipping off her shoulders” like a nightgown.
Yes. That’s right. He sexualized her enlightenment!