Sylvia Plaths epitaph?

Question

On Sylvia Plaths tombstone it says "Even admist fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted." Is this a self-penned epitaph or is it from another poet?

Answer 1

" Sylvia Plath lies in a rather unkempt grave at Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, near Ted Hughes' birthplace. The name on the headstone is Sylvia Plath Hughes, though on more than one occasion 'Hughes' has been obliterated by rampant Ted-haters. The epitaph is indistinct in this photo, but reads 'Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted'. Bit floral for my taste, being a Raymond Carver man. Hughes is said to have thought that it comes from ancient Hindu scriptures, but the almost exact quote is to be found in the book 'Monkey', written in the 16th century by Wu Ch'Eng-En. Those who still blame Ted for Sylvia's demise would do well to remember that she seems to have been unable to decide from her teens whether to end her days as a poet or a suicide. Rather cleverly, she managed both, and no doubt would have done so if she'd never met the man."

" The wording reads, “Even amidst fierce flames - the golden lotus can be planted,” a quote from 16th century Chinese poet Wu Ch’Eng-En."

Actually, the book's original title is as foolws:

"Journey to the West (Traditional Chinese: 西遊記; Simplified Chinese: 西游记; Hanyu Pinyin: Xīyóu Jì; Wade-Giles: Hsiyu Chi) is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, and even though no direct evidence of its authorship survives, it is traditionally ascribed to the scholar Wú Chéng'ēn.
The work is also known as Monkey from the title of a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley."


"These lines can be found in a poem by Wu Ch'eng which is clearly about alchemy and regeneration, (The Adventures of Monkey translated by Arthur Waley):
The Patriarch Subodhi then recited:
To spare and tend the vital powers, this and nothing else
Is sum and total of all magic, secret and profane.
All is comprised in these three, Spirit, Breath and Soul;
Guard them closely, screen them well; let there be no leak.
Store them within the frame.
That is all that can be learnt, and all that can be taught.
I would have you mark the tortoise and the snake locked in tight embrace.
Locked in tight embrace, the cital powers are strong;
Even in the midst of fierce flames the Golden Lotus may be planted,
The Five Elements compounded and transposed, and put to new use.
When that is done, be which you please, Buddha or Immortal."

Answer 2

it relatively is unsafe to word psychiatric diagnoses to human beings long whilst they're lifeless. at times the psychotic mania of bipolar can seem lots like a psychotic episode of schizophrenia, working example. In Touched With fire: Manic-Depressive ailment and the imaginative Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison contains Plath between those artists who for sure had a temper ailment, yet she would not bypass so a great way as to diagnose it extra relatively than that. She knows extra desirable. She's a psychiatrist. there are a number of different artists for whom the information of a particular diagnosis are lots extra sparkling. Schizophrenia regularly co-exists with melancholy. yet Plath might have been bipolar. Or, if she have been nevertheless around to quiz in extra element approximately how her studies matched the present diagnostic standards, she might finally end up to have another affective ailment, or mix of themes. yet in the absence of extra information, we would desire to end that we're not specific.

Answer 3

Researchers believe it comes from a Mahayana Buddhist text, but which one it may be is questionable.