Dgeldan Gnomic Verses

Dgeldan Gnomic Verses (Ge Dan Ge Yan in Chinese),an aphorism anthology,was written in the middle of the 16 century by Banqin Suonanzhake (Ban Qin Suo Nan Zha Ba in Chinese),who is an eminent monk of Tibetan.

This anthology included 125 poems with 4 lines in each verse and 7 syllables in each line in form.In content，it mainly enlightened people to distinguish the wise and the fool.Characterized by the rich metaphors,Gnomic verse publicized the idea of governing the state by giving an illustration to the Buddhism and moral thinkings.The writer always chose to compare the ordinary objects in daily life and combine the Buddhist truth and objective image ingeniously to let image express thinkings.With vivid and accurate,these plain metaphors are easily recognized and understood by common people.Dgeldan Gnomic Verses is a classic poetry anthology with great wisdom.

Here are two excerpts.

The hare,the monkey,the bird and the elephant,(https://www.daowen.com)

Made their rules together and became triumphant.

When Yama shows his smiling face,

He will take people to Death’s place.