Grass on the Grave

Beneath the grave
The dead body lies
Over the grave
The green grass lives.

The grass on the grave
Is the living symbol
Of the dead
Under the grave;
Out of the dead
Does spring the life.

The more
The body decomposed
The more
The grass turned green;
Transformation of death
Into living life.

The animate roots
Of the grass
Are the inanimate hairs
Of the dead;
Life manifests
Out of the lifeless.

Through the flowers
Of the grass
Peep the eyes of the dead
At the world
Of colour and song
Of fragrance and flavour
Of touch and movement
Which the dead enjoyed
Some time .

The purple grass flowers
Drenched in monsoon showers
Bend their tiny heads
In reverie retrospective.

The green shoots
Of today
Were yesterday
Dry and brown;
The day before yesterday
They were dead stumps;
Death yields life.

Life dives
Into death today
Only to emerge afresh
Again tomorrow.
Man is dead;
Over his grave
The grass is born;
Time changes the form
The essence stays the same
Life remains eternal
Appearances pass through flux.
Leaf and bud
Plant and bird
Man and animal
Vanish into the void.

But! the life
That made
The leaf green
The bud red
The plant grow
The bird fly
The man think
The animal feel
Is eternal.
Life is eternal
Eternity is living
Non-eternal life
And non-living eternity
Are as white darkness
Are as black light!
The life
That is absent!
From the body
Buried beneath the grave,
And the life
That is present
In the green grass
Grown over the grave,
Ever remain immutable.

The man
Is not dead;
He lives
In the grass
On the grave.