I could have sworn a dozen times over that "There is a Mountain" by Donovan had previously been on the Sunday Service but it seems not. This is a lovely little song, based on a Zen aphorism, with added lyrics that have a imagistic/haiku feel.
The song's origins go way down the alley. Wikipedia nails it, so here's the details:
The lyrics refer to a Buddhist saying originally formulated by Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D.T. Suzuki in his Essays in Zen Buddhism, one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US. Qingyuan writes
Before I had studied Chan (Zen) for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.
The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is
The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain
Oh Juanita, oh Juanita, oh Juanita, I call your name Ah Oh,
The snow will be a blinding sight to see, as it lies on yonder hillside.
The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is
The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is
First there is a mountain
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Fuji san by Maki_C30D
making mountains rise
in the clouds...
cawing crow
What could be more natural for the Sunday Service and Lilliput Review than "The One Inch Rock?" Hard to believe I've been doing this all these years and have missed it until now. It would seem that the moral of this tale is don't mess with the Liquid Poetess:
The One Inch Rock
Met a woman she's spouting prose
She's got luggage eyes and a roman nose
Her body is slung from side to side
Need a lift she said much obliged
I'm riding piggy-back
Then I come to her shack
We go inside the place is a mess
She said my name's the Liquid Poetess
She unties her mouth
And her buckskin dress
She drinks from a bottle
labeled tenderness
I'm in one hand in the other's a can
She puts me in the can
And smiles through the wall
I got the horror's cos I'm one inch tall
Next thing I know's a girl by my side
Dressed in a bayleaf she's trying to hide
I asked her name she said Germaine
Do the rock do the one inch rock.
This naturally put me in mind of a couple of things, first being The Incredible Shrinking Man. Here's a montage of clips from the fantastic film version of Richard Matheson's novel, kind of oddly set to the song "No New Tale to Tell" by Love and Rockets.
And here's some more shrinking (and growing) from the 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland, oddly set once more this time to the tune of a Django Reinhart's "Improvisation."
Finally, of course, there's Gulliver's Lilliput, courtesy of Dean Swift and, in this case a parcel of animators, from the 1939 full screen version of Gulliver's Travels, which you can watch in its entirety (do notice the Hokusai influenced waves at the beginning) here:
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