Category Archives: Literature

“Song of the Open Road” (10 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Allons! the inducements shall be greater,
 We will sail pathless and wild seas,
 We will go where winds blow, waves dash,
   and the Yankee clipper speeds by under
   full sail. 

Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the
   elements,
 Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem,
   curiosity;
 Allons! from all formules!
 From your formules, O bat-eyed and
   materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage--
   the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning!
 He traveling with me needs the best blood,
   thews, endurance,
 None may come to the trial till he or she
   bring courage and health,
 Come not here if you have already spent the
   best of yourself,
 Only those may come who come in sweet
   and determin'd bodies,
 No diseas'd person, no rum-drinker or 
   venereal taint is permitted here.

(I and mine do not convince by arguments,
    similes, rhymes,
 We convince by our presence.)

“Song of the Open Road” (9 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Allons! whoever you are come travel with
   me!
 Traveling with me you find what never tires.

The earth never tires,
 The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible
    at first, Nature is rude and
    incomprehensible at first,
 Be not discouraged, keep on, there are
   divine things well envelop'd,
 I swear to you there are divine things more
   beautiful than words can tell.

Allons! we must not stop here,
 However sweet these laid-up stores, however
   convenient this dwelling we cannot 
   remain here,
 However shelter'd this port and however
   calm these waters we must not anchor 
   here,
 However welcome the hospitality that 
   surrounds us we are permitted to receive
   it but a little while.

BOOKS: “Letters from a Seducer” by Hilda Hilst

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Letters from a SeducerLetters from a Seducer by Hilda Hilst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Pushkin Press Classics

Release Date: May 27, 2025

This is an upcoming English translation of a 1991 novella from Brazilian author, Hilda Hilst, from what has been called her “obscene cycle.” It is mostly an epistolary novella in which a man, Karl, writes his sister, Cordelia, informing her about his recent sexual adventures and attempting to coax a confession out of her about her own activities long in the past. We never see any replies from Cordelia. (And that is part of what makes the book fascinating.) The only indication of her responses that we get are Karl’s references to Cordelia’s comments from her last letter in his present letter. However, we can’t necessarily be certain that even those occasional suggestions of dialog represent the truth.

To understand why one might have doubt, one must be aware of what else is going on in this book. There is one other narrative voice, and that is of Stamatius. Stamatius is in socio-economic terms the opposite of Karl. Karl being of the gentlemanly class — his behavior and letters to his sister notwithstanding — and Stamatius is a starving artist (a writer, to be precise.) The two men speak of each other, though always in deprecating terms. However, there’s reason to think the two men might be one. Stamatius, while condemning Karl’s sex obsession, also mostly engages in tales of his own sexual adventures as well as presenting those of others. In fact, the end of this novella is a collection of short vignettes of the nature one might see in a smutty letter magazine, only better (and sometimes poetically) written.

By the author’s own description, this novella is intentionally pornographic. While the same thing is said of Hilst’s The Obscene Madame D I did not find that book particularly graphic or sex-centric. This book, however, is quite graphic and if one took away references to sexual activities
nothing of substance would remain. (Not true of The Obscene Madame D.)

I found this book to be intriguing, despite the fact that it is quite sloppily arranged (presumably on purpose,) but it does present some splendid use of language (at least in this translation — the original is in Brazilian Portuguese) and character psychology.

I’d recommend this book for readers of literary fiction who don’t mind plotlessness and pornographicness.

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“Song of the Open Road” (8 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is
   happiness,
 I think it pervades the open air, waiting at
   all times,
 Now it flows unto us, we are rightly 
   charged.

Here rises the fluid and attaching character,
 The fluid and attaching character is the 
    freshness and sweetness of man and
    woman,
 (The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher
   and sweeter every day out of the roots of
   themselves, than it sprouts fresh and
   sweet continually out of itself.) 

Toward the fluid and attaching character
   exudes the sweat of the love of young and
   old,
 From it falls distill'd the charm that mocks
   beauty and attainments,
 Toward it heaves the shuddering longing
   ache of contact.

“Song of the Open Road” (7 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Here is the efflux of the soul,
 The efflux of the soul comes from within
   through embower'd gates, ever provoking
   questions,
 These yearnings why are they? these
   thoughts in the darkness why are they?
 Why are there men and women that while
   they are nigh me the sunlight expands my
   blood?
 Why when they leave me do my pennants
   of joy sink flat and lank?
 Why are there trees I never walk under but
   large and melodious thoughts descend
   upon me?
 (I think they hang there winter and summer
   on those trees and always drop fruit as I
   pass;)
 What is it I interchange so suddenly with
   strangers?
 What with some driver as I ride on the seat
   by his side?
 What with some fisherman drawing his
   seine by the shore as I walk by and pause?
 What gives me to be free to a woman's and
   man's good-will? what gives them to be 
   free to mine?

“Song of the Open Road” (6 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Now if a thousand perfect men were to
   appear it would not amaze me,
 Now if a thousand beautiful forms of
   women appear'd it would not astonish
   me.

Now I see the secret of the making of the
   best persons,
 It is to grow in the open air and to eat and
   sleep with the earth.

Here a great personal deed has room,
 (Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the
   whole race of men,
 Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms
   law and mocks all authority and all 
   argument against it.)

Here is the test of wisdom,
 Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
 Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having
   it to another not having it,
 Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of
   proof, is its own proof,
 Applies to all stages and objects and 
   qualities and is content, 
 Is the certainty of the reality and
   immortality of things, and the excellence 
   of things;
 Something there is in the float of the sight
   of things that provokes it out of the soul.

Now I re-examine philosophies and 
   religions,
 They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet
   not prove at all under the spacious clouds
   and along the landscape and flowing
   currents.

Here is realization,
 Here is a man tallied -- he realizes here what 
   he has in him,
 The past, the future, majesty, love -- if they
   are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.

Only the kernel of every object nourishes;
 Where is he who tears off the husks for you
   and me?
 Where is he that undoes stratagems and
   envelopes for you and me?

Here is adhesiveness, it is not previously
   fashion'd, it is apropos;
 Do you know what it is as you pass to be
   loved by strangers?
 Do you know the talk of those turning eye-
   balls?

BOOKS: 孙子兵法 [Sunzi’s Art of War] by Sunzi

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孙子兵法白话全译孙子兵法白话全译 by 史哲 文
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online – YellowBridge

In thirteen short chapters, Sunzi lays out a masterclass in strategy. One sees in Sunzi’s work the mark of a Taoist mindset, seeing it in the book’s emphasis on engaging in warfare only when necessary, doing things the easy way whenever possible, and never letting one’s ego write checks one isn’t able to cash in lives.

There is good reason that this is one of the world’s most well-known (if not the most well-known) treatise on warfare. Far from being complicated and technical, this guide is full of pithy teachings such as: “War is the way of deception.” “No country ever benefited from a long war.” “Defeating the enemy without fighting is supreme excellence.” “To be undefeated lies in oneself, to be victorious lies in the enemy.” “Know the enemy and yourself and victory is assured; know heaven and earth and victory is complete.” (And these teachings are even more concise in the original Chinese.)

In addition to basics like leadership, maneuver, and terrain, the book devotes chapters to both the use of fire and spies in warfare. (One’s level of understanding is central to strategic victory throughout Sunzi’s teachings.)

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in strategy, martial arts, or other strategic pursuits. The book may be ancient, but it’s not obsolete by any means.

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“Song of the Open Road” (5 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of 
   limits and imaginary lines,
 Going where I list, my own master total and
   absolute,
 Listening to others, considering well what 
   they say,
 Pausing, searching, receiving,
   contemplating,
 Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting
    myself of the holds that would hold me.
 I inhale great draughts of space,
 The east and the west are mine, and the 
   north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,
 I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me,
 I can repeat over to men and women You
   have done such good to me I would do 
   the same to you.
 I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
 I will scatter myself among men and women
   as I go,
 I will toss a new gladness and roughness
   among them,
 Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,
 Whoever accepts me he or she shall be
    blessed and shall bless me.

“Song of the Open Road” (4 of 9) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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The earth expanding right hand and left
   hand,
 The picture alive, every part in its best light,
 The music falling in where it is wanted, and
   stopping where it is not wanted,
 The cheerful voice of the public road, the
   gay fresh sentiment of the road.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do
   not leave me?
 Do you say Venture not--if you leave me
   you are lost?
 Do you say I am already prepared, I am
   well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to
   leave you, yet I love you,
 You express me better than I can express 
   myself,
 You shall be more to me than my poem.

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the
   open air, and all free poems also,
 I think I could stop here myself and do 
   miracles,
 I think whatever I shall meet on the road I
   shall like, and whoever beholds me shall
   like me,
 I think whoever I see must be happy.

“Song of the Open Road” (3 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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You air that serves me with breath to speak!
 You objects that call from diffusion my
   meanings and give them shape!
 You light that wraps me and all things in
   delicate equable showers!
 You paths worn in the irregular hollows by 
   the roadsides!
 I believe you are latent with unseen
   existences, you are so dear to me.

You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong
   curbs at the edges!
 You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves!
   you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!

You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd 
   façades! you roofs!
 You porches and entrances! you copings and
   iron guards!
 You windows whose transparent shells
   might expose so much!
 You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
 You gray stones of interminable pavements!
   you trodden crossings!
 From all that has touch'd you I believe you
   have imparted to yourselves, and now 
   would impart the same secretly to me,
 From the living and the dead you have
   peopled your impassive surfaces, and the
   spirits thereof would be evident and 
   amicable with me.