Chant for Great Compassion 
Voicing: SSAA div., and narrator (a cappella)Text: Qiu Jin, and traditional Chinese 'Great Compassion Mantra'
Language: English & Chinese in transliteration
Duration: 5 min.
Premiere: UPCOMING: October 25, 2008, Cornell University Chorus (Ithaca, NY)
Commissioned: by the Cornell University Chorus; Scott Tucker, conductor
Published by: Self-published, AB-057-00
See the score: PREVIEW THE SCORE (pdf)
Order now: Will be available here November 2008
Lines written while traveling by boat
I ride the clouds ten thousand leagues,
I left and now return;
My self alone in the eastern sea,
spring thunder at my side.
I cannot bear to see his map,
and so my face grows pale;
How can I let these rivers and hills
return to kalpa ash?
Cheap wine can never melt away,
the sorrow for my nation;
To save this age, we must rely
on talent beyond the common.
For we will risk this blood that flows
from one hundred thousand skulls -
And thus exert the strength to turn
the cosmos back in place.
- trans. Paul Rouzer
Great Compassion Mantra
1. na mo ho la da nu do la ye ye,
2. na mo o li ye,
3. po lu je di sho bo la ye,
4. pu ti sa do po ye,
5. mo ho sa do po ye,
6. mo ho jia lu ni jia ye,
7. an,
8. sa bo la fa yi,
9. su da nu da sia,
10. na mo si ji li do yi mung o li ye,
11. po lu ji di, sho fo la ling to po,
12. na mo nu la jin cho... (poem continues for 84 lines)
Lines written while traveling by boat: Used by kind permission of Paul Rouzer. This poem may be reprinted from this website only for use in concert programs and for promotional use as related to this musical work.
Great Compassion Mantra: This text is in the public domain and may be reprinted freely from this website.
I ride the clouds ten thousand leagues,
I left and now return;
My self alone in the eastern sea,
spring thunder at my side.
I cannot bear to see his map,
and so my face grows pale;
How can I let these rivers and hills
return to kalpa ash?
Cheap wine can never melt away,
the sorrow for my nation;
To save this age, we must rely
on talent beyond the common.
For we will risk this blood that flows
from one hundred thousand skulls -
And thus exert the strength to turn
the cosmos back in place.
- trans. Paul Rouzer
Great Compassion Mantra
1. na mo ho la da nu do la ye ye,
2. na mo o li ye,
3. po lu je di sho bo la ye,
4. pu ti sa do po ye,
5. mo ho sa do po ye,
6. mo ho jia lu ni jia ye,
7. an,
8. sa bo la fa yi,
9. su da nu da sia,
10. na mo si ji li do yi mung o li ye,
11. po lu ji di, sho fo la ling to po,
12. na mo nu la jin cho... (poem continues for 84 lines)
Lines written while traveling by boat: Used by kind permission of Paul Rouzer. This poem may be reprinted from this website only for use in concert programs and for promotional use as related to this musical work.
Great Compassion Mantra: This text is in the public domain and may be reprinted freely from this website.
PROGRAM NOTE:
This is a piece about compassion. About strength. About the power - and freedom - to change.
The opening melody is inspired by the traditional chant to the goddess Guan Yin, known in Buddhism as the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion. Guan Yin, whose name means "she who hears the cries of the world," is revered in China, Japan, and Taiwan, and her spiritual ancestor, Avalokitesvara, in Malaysia, Tibet, and Thailand. One Buddhist legend presents Guan Yin as vowing never to rest until she had freed all sentient beings from reincarnation. Despite strenuous effort, she realized that still so many were yet to be freed. After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, her head split into eleven pieces. Suddenly able to comprehend myriad cries, she attempted to reach out to everyone, but her arms shattered into pieces. She was then given one thousand arms with which to aid the suffering.
In China, fishermen pray to Guan Yin to ensure safe voyage. So with the traditional chant, I've juxtaposed the Qiu Jin text, written while she was traveling back to China by boat. Qiu Jin was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, and writer. An eloquent orator, Qiu spoke out for women's rights: the freedom to marry, freedom of education, and abolishment of bound feet. She was tortured and publicly executed in 1907, at the age of 31.
The Great Compassion Mantra, also known as the Dàbei Zhòu, is an 84-line chant first translated from Sanskrit to Chinese in the seventh century. It is used for protection, purification, and healing. Because the Chinese version has been translated so many times and is spread widely through oral tradition, today the individual words have shed their original meanings. It now exists in many variations in East Asia and around the world, and is said to generate karma - even to the dead - upon its recitation.
I dedicate this piece, including any and all karma generated by its performance, to the 11 million people affected by the earthquake in Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008. I also encourage performers to envision their own karma recipient(s).
- Abbie Betinis, Sept. 2008