Call Me by My True Names

In an interview on Buddhism

Your next author, Thich Nhat Hanh, is something of a guru. You’ve chosen his book Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh.

He is a Vietnamese Zen master who was born way back in 1926. He was a very socially minded young monk and became a monk early. In the 1960’s he went to the USA on a peace mission and wasn’t allowed to return. He was in exile in the West for many years and in 1982 he founded Plum Village in France, which is a Buddhist centre which people flock to from all over Europe and beyond – not only Buddhists but others.

In some ways, he has become an icon of Buddhism, particularly that form of Buddhism that works for human rights, building peace and engagement with society. He was co-founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists and has written numerous books. But I have chosen his poems because some of the poems are exceptionally hard-hitting and beautiful.

I would like to share one of them with you. It’s called, ‘Please Call Me by My True Names’ and it’s rooted in the context of the Vietnamese War. In his prologue to the poem, he talks about the different people involved in the poem. There is a 12-year-old girl who is one of the Vietnamese boat people. She is raped by a sea pirate and hurls herself into the sea. Then there is the sea pirate born in a remote village in Thailand. And Thich Nhat Hanh in his prologue speaks about the anger he felt when he first heard of the event. But then he moves into deeper reflection on the inter-relatedness of everything and comes to a point where he can write a poem that confirms that he could have been the sea pirate if he had been brought up in the same context.

It is quite a long poem so I will just read some of it.

    I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

    my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

    And I am the arms merchant

    selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

    I am the twelve-year-old girl,

    refugee on a small boat,

    who throws herself into the ocean,

    after being raped by a sea pirate.

    And I am the pirate,

    my heart not yet capable

    of seeing and loving…

    My joy is like Spring, so warm

    it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

    My pain is like a river of tears,

    so vast it fills the four oceans.

    Please call me by my true names,

    so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,

    so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

    Please call me by my true names

    so I can wake up

    and so the door of my heart

    can be left open,

    the door of compassion.

I have used this in my teaching and have encouraged students to think about this question of inter-relatedness. Some are quite horrified that Thich Nhat Hanh could have identified with someone who raped a young girl. But then Nhat Hanh would say that we must show compassion both to the oppressor and the oppressed, which is a very Buddhist idea.