Chapter 18 15. Bodhi is not a tree

Where is this bodhi tree? Dear Andre: do you know?The musical enlightenment of my generation is European and American songs.My favorite song "Recalling Childhood" when I was a child: "Spring passes and autumn comes, time flows like a stream, a wanderer hurts and wanders..." Or everyone will sing "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the green grass and the sky..." Li Shutong The lyrics are calm and elegant, like Song lyrics, so I always thought it was Chinese classical music. Only when I grew up did I realize that the tunes are all adapted from American or German songs.

German art songs are taught a lot in elementary school music classes: "Lorelei", "Linden Tree", "Wild Rose", "Trout"... Many songs in Schubert's "Winter Journey" are our favorite songs since we were young. I just learned to sing.You can understand why, when I came to Germany later, I was surprised that German children didn't hear or sing these songs.It's like when you go to China and find that Chinese children don't read. The song "The Bodhi Tree" is a common memory of many Taiwanese, because Schubert's music is sad, because Muller's lyrics are beautiful, and maybe because the Bodhi tree has touched many people in our minds that are related to wisdom, awareness, and more. Higher-level souls seek associated associations.

Bodhi tree, Moraceae, scientific name is Ficusreligiosa, the genus name is Ficus (also known as fig genus), and the species name religiosa shows that this is a "faith" tree. More than 2,000 years ago, Sakyamuni became enlightened and became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree in the south of the city of Gaya, Magadha, in Central India. Therefore, the pippala tree, which was originally known as the "auspicious tree" in India, was called Bodhi- Druma, bodhi tree, the tree of "wisdom".Then Ashoka’s daughter brought a branch of the Bodhi tree to Mahamegha, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, and planted it deeply. To this day, the tree is still luxuriant. It was more than 1700 years ago that the Bodhi tree was introduced and planted in Guangzhou.I went to Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou in January this year to see the bodhi tree where the sixth patriarch Huineng was ordained, and my heart was still deeply shaken.If you don't know Hui Neng, I can only describe it as if you saw a tree planted by Martin Luther himself.

Then I discovered that you don't sing Schubert at all.Yes, music teachers teach you to appreciate operas, listen to Beethoven's symphonies, analyze Schubert's "Trout", but the German art songs that we are taught as "classic" and "classical" songs in school music lessons , I am so surprised that it is not a big deal in German music lessons. "This song," Philip said, "is out of date!" I was a little offended.How many songs of "Youth Fifteen and Twenty" have been moved, but he said they were "out of touch"; how could this kind of song be "out of touch"?I glared at him angrily.

The German name of Schubert's song is DerLindenbaum, and both Chinese and Japanese have been translated as "The Bodhi Tree". So when I went to the famous street in East Berlin, UnterdenLinden, I thought that the bodhi tree should be lining the road, but that Standing beside the road is not a bodhi tree at all, but a tree I have never seen in Taiwan.What kind of tree is this?It is neither Bodhi, so why was it translated into "Bodhi Tree" and sung by generations? I spent a lot of time researching and found out that Linden might be called a "linden tree", but I have never seen a linden tree.After inquiring, my friend said that the tree I described existed in Beijing, so I collected the leaves, flowers, and fruits of the Linden tree and brought them to Beijing to compare them one by one.Finally confirmed, yes, the piece in Schubert's "Winter Journey" should be translated as "Lime Tree".

The linden tree, whose scientific name is Tiliaceae, belongs to the family Tiliaceae.The flowers are very fragrant, and the honey made is very mellow.Linden trees are densely distributed in Northeast China.The linden tree in Europe is foreign, but with a long history, the linden tree has become the sweet home tree in the hearts of Central Europeans.Do you know, Andre, in the past, the Germans would plant a linden tree in their garden when their child was born, believing that the linden tree would predict the future fate of the child.The Germans regard the linden tree as a symbol of "peace", and its patron saint is the goddess Freya, the god of life and love.

After tracing this far, I suddenly realized that where there is a well, there must be a linden tree. For a German, the linden tree evokes a warm and sweet home, a peaceful and quiet life, warm love and family affection.So the lyrics are: In front of the gate next to the well there is a linden tree I was in the shade I have had countless sweet dreams... Schubert, a wandering traveler, misses the well in his village, the linden tree, and the tranquility and deep affection hidden in the fragrance of the linden tree. Andrea, I was blown away by this discovery.Because the meaning and associations contained in the "Bodhi tree" are very different.The bodhi tree is the pursuit of transcendence, and the linden tree is the attachment to the world of mortals and into the world.

So far I don’t know whether the translator made a mistake because he didn’t recognize the lime tree, and he made a mistake for nearly a century; or because he actually knew it and decided to mistranslate it deliberately for an aesthetic reason.If this song is translated into "Lime Tree", it may not be sung by us for 100 years, because "Lime Tree", a tree that has never been seen and cannot be imagined, cannot arouse any association in our hearts.But the bodhi tree is full of meaning and far-sighted thinking. For those of us who live in the subtropics, the one that most fits the image of a rural village with linden trees may be the banyan tree, but for the place full of linden trees in Heilongjiang, maybe this song should be called "linden tree"?

Going back to your "hip-hop" music, dear, I think there might be something called a "cultural creative misunderstanding" as well.Once the words made up by African-Americans crossed the sea to Europe, the meanings received by Europeans changed in nature.So vulgar and crude may be regarded as "cool", while what you think is Kitsch in Europe may be embraced by people in other cultural circles.The "text" of music is also a living thing. In different time, space and historical situations, it can be like a chameleon. I don't think it needs to be taken too seriously.

What is my "secret, private aesthetic experience"?My dear, it is probably to find out the difference between the lime tree and the linden tree. love you MM