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SURVEY OF AFRO ASIAN LITERATURE

MODULE 5

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1. Why was Kandata in hell?

 He was in hell because he had done evil deeds like robbery, murder, and setting fire to
houses.

2. Why did buddha decide to help Kandata? How did he help Kandata?
 Kandata cought the attention of Buddha so Buddha wanted to help Kandata out of
hell. Buddha knew that despite of all evil he had done, Buddha knew that Kandata
made a good action just once in his life which made Buddha wanted him to be saved.
So he used the spider as his way out since he saved one spider before.

3. Why did the spider’s thread break?

 It was not meant to break until, Kandata became greedy and so much pride arouse. It
was his behavior that broke the spider’s thread. It was his actions towards with the
people in hell the same as him.

4. Would kandata have been saved had he behave more generously to his fellow sinners?
Explain.
 I think so. As this story is a lesson-implied to readers – It shows how Kandata’s
behavior affected him in saving himself. So full of himself. The spider’s thread was not
meant to break. It was an instrument or a way to prove the goodness despite of his
evil deeds. Buddha used the spider, same as when Kandata saved a spider from killing
during his life on land. However, just as when Kandata trying to tell the other sinners
not to climb for it is only for him, that is the moment it broke. We can comprehend
that it was him that he didn’t save himself. It was his greedy and pride.

5. How does the description of paradise and hell in the spider’s thread compare with your
concepts of these two places?
 My perspective of two places is the same as in the story – good in heaven and bad for
hell. We always have this common analogy as how we interpret good and bad, to
these two places. We already knew the comparison of these two places as to how
good and bad a person is. The same as in the story. Sinners were in hell and they are
tortured and suffered there. But im paradise, where righteous and good deeds rxists
and Buddha represents it.

6. In what way do our counter-values work against us? Give examples. In what way do counter-
values work for us. Cite examples.
 When our actions are not useful to others and are solely focused on our intentions
and own interests, counter values work against us. For instance, when we do
something together with our greediness and pride to someone, we do not realize
sometimes that it counter-attacks as well. Our wrongdoings will get back to us too.
 When we are being so selfish to someone, what we do to this person, will get us
affected too. We may lose things or people in exchange of our unrighteousness.

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1. What could possibly be the dream of warriors ?

 Perhaps Bashō wanted to emphasize natural growth as a force of solace and renewal –
seeing the summer grasses at Hiraizumi as a reason for hope as well as melancholy;
hence “deep” would perhaps seem too dark and brooding a word.”

2. What is meant by grass growing in ones dreams?

 Grass turning on brave warrior’s dreams may intend confidence of triumph or it may
besides be a deduction or the warrior’s diminution and deceasing.

3. What could be the cause of the afterglow?

a. Afterglow literally means the consequence that lingers after something is done. The
afterglow mentioned in the first verse form for us may either intend they ended up
winning or they lose in the conflict and ended up deceasing.

4. Why is the crow detestable?

a. Most folks don’t like crows. They steal food, they are ugly and other things that makes
the crow unpleasant to the eyes of many. But Basho was too in love with nature
himself to hate anything of it, he was just using the common view of the bird for this
haiku.

5. What made the crow a pleasant sight at the time the writer saw it?
a. At the time when he saw the crow, he knew it was pleasant. Because the crow and the
snow gave him the idea of independence of each object or living or some things. He
knew that he realized something after he saw the crow. Its contrast to the snow – the
interdependence of each of it and that’s how he think it does the same to him. The
highlight of one self within his surroundings.

6. What makes some unpleasant things acceptable? Give examples.

a. It is when in such instances, where things don’t go with our plans. When things go the
other way around – it is the time of unpleasantness. However, we often realized
something after the storm. We realized lessons we got from that unpleasantness. And
that is where greatest moment comes in. Of how we adapt to this unpleasant things
and we used it to be better and to turn the wheel on the other side.

7. What contrast is mentioned in the second haiku? What effect is achieved by the contrast?

a. The contrast mentioned in the 2nd haiku is the contrast between the silence or hush
of the pool and the motion of the toad that jumped in it. The consequence achieved
by the contrast was the splash. It gave beauty and life to the soundless pool. The
splash in the haiku symbolized an event in one’s life that may do to interrupt the
humdrum and convey a glance of felicity and life. The pool symbolizes our life as
human existences. It represents our state of mind.
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1. Turning from watching

the moon, my comfortable old
shadow led me home.

 It is implying that as he or she walks home, he or she saw the moon, shining with its
moonlight overshadowed him or her, that it showed her or him the way to home.

2. That duck, bobbing up

From the green depth of a pond
has seen something strange.

 It is all about the duck he saw in a pond. As in this poem describes the actions and
movements of the duck as if the duck is curious of something he/she was seeing in the
pond.

3. I wonder in what fields today

He chases dragonflies in play
My little boy-who ran away.

 It was a worried mother who thinks about her child, thinking of his child playing in a
field chasing dragonflies. She was thinking of how her child was doing at the moment.

4. All around the rope a morning glory clings;

How can I break its beauties dainty spell?
I beg for water from my neighbors well.

 Tender morning glories, or “morning faces” as they are known in Japanese, are a
refreshing sight as they open early on summer mornings before fading in the heat of
the day. The round, green seed pods are attractive too, with dainty russet stripes.