Analysis of On the Fire Suicides of the Buddhists by Charles Bukowski

On The Fire Suicides Of The Buddhists

 by Charles Bukowski

"They only burn themselves to reach Paradise"
                                       - Mne. Nhu

original courage is good,
motivation be damned,
and if you say they are trained
to feel no pain,
are they
guaranteed this?
is it still not possible
to die for somebody else?

you sophisticates
who lay back and
make statements of explanation,
I have seen the red rose burning
and this means more.

Madame Nhu was the first lady of the Diem regime.  As the title suggests, the quote refers to the self immolation of the Buddhists.  Her words are meant to illustrate that the motives of the Buddhists who committed the fire suicides during the Vietnam war were selfish.  The context of the poem is political in nature, and occurred during something called the Buddhist crisis in Vietnam. 

In the first two lines the narration lauds the courage of the fire suicides.   The most widely known suicide by Thich Quan Duc, was captured on video.   Here the narrator sidesteps the criticism directed towards the Buddhists by Madame Nhu.  He doesn't refute the idea that there may be selfishness involved.  The motivation doesn't really matter, the courage and originality of the act is is commendable.  The two lines fit into a six syllable schema by the way.

The middle of the stanza questions perhaps further criticisms leveled by Nhu as to the pain the Buddhists feel during self-immolation. The questioning of Nhu's rhetoric isn't styled as contempt or hatred, it's merely curious doubt.  Are they / guaranteed this?  It leaves it up to the reader what that might mean if they're not, with the further question on the possibility of dying for someone else.  The split between the Are they and guaranteed this?  seems to imply that the gravity of Nhu's argument revolves around what's beneficial to her.  They are the ones that have to worry about the agony involved with self-immolation.  


The last part of the stanza is a question to no one in particular, what does it mean to live in a world where altruism and self sacrifice exists?  The poem doesn't answer these questions, but merely brings them up for the reader to think about.  

The last stanza is a critique of the sophisticates who explain phenomena such as the self-immolation of Thich Quan Duc in terms that redound to their own benefit.  The second line of the stanza is subtle in it's criticism using the words lay back.  That is to say people who refuse to be moved by these sorts of acts.   The narration goes on to state that he's seen these things happen with his own eyes, and that the gravity of what he's perceived means more than the commentary on it.  That is to say, the narrator has touched experience with his own mind through his perceptions.  Not through the lens of commentary by the people such as Madame Nhu who have a stake in twisting perceptions around the event.  It means more than any commentary that self-serving sophisticates might make up to explain the event to themselves or others.