Whitman at the Bardo

<p><strong>Invoking Mnemosyne the Greek goddess of memory the poem that is Whitman at the Bardo worries-is troubled through and by-the intermedial site of death-in-life of life that has not yet moved into death but exists as claimant and petitioner shadow and light. As we read in Tibetan Book of the Dead: </strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Alas now as the intermediate state of the time of death arises before me</strong></p><p><strong>Renouncing all attachment yearning and subjective apprehension in every respect</strong></p><p><strong>I must undistractedly enter the path one which the oral teachings are clearly understood</strong></p><p><strong>And eject my own awareness into the uncreated expanse of space. </strong></p><p><strong>Immediately upon separation from this compounded body of flesh and blood</strong></p><p><strong>I must know this body to be like a transient illusion.</strong></p><p><strong>Translated by Gyurme Dorje</strong></p>