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BUDDHIST HYMNS

VERSIFIED TRANSLATIONS FROM THE DHAMMA-
PADA AND VARIOUS OTHER

SOURCES

ADAPTED TO MODERN MUSIC

BY

PAUL CARUS

CHICAGO

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY

LONDON AGENTS

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD.

1911

COPYRIGHT BY

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.

1911

M
2145

1911

FOREWORD.

UDDHISM exercises an increasingly powerful influence

BUD

upon the people of western civilization: it fascinates the pious Christian on account of its remarkable agreements with Christian ethics; it interests the unbeliever on account of those features of its doctrines which stand in contradictory opposition to Christianity, and it is admired by thinkers on account of its philosophical depth, its humane spirit, and the loftiness of its morality.

As to myself, Buddhism has constantly grown upon me and I have found more and more reason to justify my esteem for both this grand religion and its noble founder. I can repeat the words and make them my own which the venerable Professor Fausböll said after having spent a lifetime on the study of Pali literature, "the more I know of Buddha, the more I love him."

The influence of Buddha's spirit upon his followers shows itself in the excellencies of the Buddhist canon, which among all the religious literature on earth-and here not even the Bible can be said to make an exception-is distinguished by purity, profundity, and loftiness. In my literary labors I have met with repeated occasions when I felt the need of quoting Buddhist hymns for the qualities that characterize the devotional poetry of Buddhism, and thus I was frequently induced to try my hand at the versification of these ancient and venerable stanzas, the result of which is collected in this little volume. In addition to versifications of Buddhist poetry, I have written a few original poems in the same strain, and these are also included in the present collection. I have set some of these Buddhist poems to music, which, as

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