Please Call Me By My True Names
Do not say that I will depart tomorrow –
because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
In order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.
I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird which, when Spring comes
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass -snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve year old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his “debt of blood” to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labour camp.
My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.
By Thich Nhat Hanh
From ‘Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh’.
Featured image shows Thich Nhat Hanh. Photo credit to Plum Village monastery.
I am grateful to Choden, Buddhist monk at Samye Ling monastery and teacher with the Mindfulness Association, for introducing this poem to participants at his session on Buddhist Approaches to Compassion, at the Mindfulness Association’s recent online Membership weekend in May. ER.