열반 적정과 엘리엇의 네 사중주

Abstract

Four Quartets expresses suffering as the universal condition of human beings and seeks a way to escape from it through the theme of time. By mixing individual sensibility and intelligence with thoughts of Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, the poem atriculates the themes in phrases and sentences with various connotative and contradictory meanings. Typical examples include phrases such as “The first world”, “Rose garden”, “Midwinter spring”, “Zero summer”, “A white light still and moving”, and a sentence “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; / Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, / But neither arrest nor movement.” These connotative and contradictory meanings would be hard to understand by common readers. Foregrounding Nirvana Samatha in Buddhism as a main subject of Four Quartet, this article delves into the sub-themes such as time(world of phenomenon), eternity, and salvation(redeption). As a Christian poet, Eliot presents Christ/God as the redeemer of humanity in diverse and, even, contradictory ways in the poem. The Lord becomes the end point toward which sufferings human being strive to save themselves, and the archytype of human redemption. Ways to go toward the Lord include repentance, prayer, emptying, humility, and practicing love. Buddhism’s nirvana is much similar to this, but seems a little different from Christianity in the method of seeking. Nirvana is based on internal inquiry. But Both of them are ultimately equal in that they are based on salvation for the eternal happiness of mankind. The ending of the poem, where a fire and a rose become one, visually signifies that humanity can be redeemed by empting herself and loving each other genuinely, and exemplies a poetic expression that unites the religious redemption of the East and the West.