Friday, 19 September 2008
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By the Riverbank
Every day on the way home from
My office I pawn another set
Of my spring clothes. Every day
I come home from the river bank
Drunk. Everywhere I go, I owe
Money for wine. History
Records few men who have lived to be
Seventy. I watch the yellow
Butterflies drink deep of the
Flowers, and the dragonflies
Dipping the surface of the
Water again and again.
I cry out to the spring wind,
And the light and the passing hours.
We enjoy life such a little
While, why should men fight each other?
The Chinese poet Tu Fu, tr. Kenneth Rexroth
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Comments (6)
Very beautiful thoughts. If we were all drunk with the beauty of God, we would never need to fight again. Thanks for posting. This particular poet is new to me.
@Pickwick12@xanga - Tu Fu was a big deal in ancient China, and is still a big deal in most world literature courses. Much better than Li Po.
Kenneth Rexroth, the translator, is, simply put, a master. I cannot praise him highly enough. He dropped out of public school but was an autodidact, and published translations from a number of languages, including Chinese and Japanese (before anybody but Arthur Waley was doing it), Latin, Greek, Spanish and French.
He also published a series of poems in Chinese (and their translations) that he attributed to a poetess named Marichiko. Scholars wanted to learn about her, but couldn't find her, and eventually it came out that he had forged the poems himself.
If I were stranded on an island, his collected poems would be my book of choice. After the Bible.
-ND
@sirnickdon - Cool. I'm very partial to Gerard Manley Hopkins.
This poem by John Donne is one of my all-time favorites:
BATTER my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely'I love you,'and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
You've got some good thoughts going on in this blog. By the way, where did you take your profile picture? It's awesome.
@point_of_no_R3turn@xanga - That picture was taken in Oneonta Gorge, which is not far from Multnomah Falls, in northern Oregon, but has absolutely no tourist presence. It's one of the most beautiful spots on earth, and it's also home to many examples of plantlife that grow nowhere else in the world, so botanists spend a lot of time there looking for pharmaceutical miracles.
Thanks for the encouragement, also.
-ND
@sirnickdon - That's awesome! It looks really beautiful.