--- rett <rett@...> skrev:

>
> How did you translate it into Swedish? Grokka?
> Fethajja?

"Grokka", quite simply. I made the translation in the
seventies, so the word "fethaja" was not invented yet
- it belonged to another future than the book...

> I agree about Heinlein's books being marred by his
> ideology. Still it seems possible to find bits of
> dhamma in almost any book. The essential teachings
> of buddhism have such an axiomatic quality about
> them that you can find them reflected in almost any
> book one way or another (if nothing else as yet
> another example of dukkha or moha).

Indeed. At least that's my excuse for my latest sin:

It's partly my fault that Alfred Nobel's tragedy
"Nemesis" has just had it first (!) performance. The
first edition was printed when he was dying, and
destroyed immediately after his death because it was
too blasfemic (explicitly Anti-Catholic and even
Anti-Christian; the devil is a quite nice chap in the
play, but the Holy Virgin is devilish indeed); only
three copies were saved, and one of them is still
archived.

The second edition was published in 2003, on my
initiative (bilingual Swedish and Esperanto); the same
year, August Strindberg's "Intima Teatern" was
refounded, and to my great surprise, they decided to
stage it, which they did on this year's Nobel Day. I
thought that was impossible, because Nobel knew
nothing about theatre. (He was inspired by "The Cenci"
by Percy Bysshe Shelley, who did.) But a good director
can make miracles, it seems - the result is very good
indeed.

But not very Buddhistic, at the face of it.

My reason for having the text re-publised was not its
Buddhist content, which isn't there, but the fact that
I don't like writers being silenced; freedom of
expression is vital for the possibility to practice
Buddhism. (Besides, it gives quite a good hint what
kind of writers he had intended should get his prize;
a hint that the Swedish Academy has been more than
happy not to know anything about.)

But, if you look at the text somewhat deeper - it
deals with the historical case of Beatrice Cenci
murdering her father, who had raped her and murdered
some of her brothers; so what is't all about is
actually good old lobha-dosa-moha, and very much
dukkha - whether Nobel knew it or not.

Besides, at the time of Strindberg and Nobel, almost
every Swedish author was more or less influenced by
Theosophy, thus indirectly by more or less
misunderstood Buddhism. I suppose it might have been
the same in many other countries.

In Strindberg's case, it's even explicit. His "A Dream
Play", which has been staged in London this year, was
by the author himself described as "buddhistiskt och
urkristet" ("Buddhist and Old Christian", or how do
you express "ur-" in English?), and its main character
is Indra's daughter...

Gunnar