Brighter than fireflies upon the Uji River
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“To a Husband” by Amy Lowell
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Category Archives: poem
Song – “My silks and fine array” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
My silks and fine array,
My smiles and languish'd air,
By love are driv'n away;
And mournful lean Despair
Brings me yew to deck my grave:
Such end true lovers have.
His face is fair as heav'n,
When springing buds unfold;
O why to him was't giv'n,
Whose heart is wintry cold?
His breast is love's all worship'd tomb,
Where all love's pilgrims come.
Bring me an axe and spade,
Bring me a winding sheet;
When I my grave have made,
Let winds and tempests beat:
Then down I'll lie, as cold as clay.
True love doth pass away!
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“The Taoist Temple Revisited” [再游玄都观] by Liu Yuxi [刘禹锡]
In half of the wide courtyard only mosses grow;
Peach blossoms all fallen, only rape flowers blow.
Where is the Taoist planting peach trees in this place?
Only I come again after my new disgrace.
Note: This is the joint translation of Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming found in the edition of <em>Golden Treasury of Quatrains and Octaves</em> on which they collaborated (i.e. China Publishing Group: Beijing (2008.))
The “new disgrace” referenced was Liu Yuxi’s second exile.
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Perfect Fruit [Senryū]
perfect fruit
still hangs on the tree:
surviving temptation.
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“Fast Rode the Knight” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]
Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knight,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.
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BOOK: “The Pocket Rumi” ed. / trans. by Kabir Helminski
The Pocket Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-RumiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Shambhala
This is a selection of writings (mostly poetry) of Rumi (formal name: Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī.) Rumi was a mystic of Sufi Islam, and so the poems tend toward the devotional — though with more reference to the experience of intoxication than one might expect from a 13th century Islamic poet.
This selection consists of three sections organized by poetic form, each section progressively longer than the preceding one. The first section is ruba’i, the second is ghazals, and the last is from Rumi’s Mathnawi.
The “Pocket” of the book’s title and series is figurative as the paperback is too big of both format and thickness for any pocket I own, personally, but the point is that it’s a quick read at only about 200 pages of (mostly) poetry [meaning white space abounds.]
I enjoyed reading this selection. I can’t say how true to message the translations are as I have no knowledge of Persian. I can point out that the translators opted to abandon form in favor of free verse. Hopefully, this gave them the freedom of movement to approach the message and tone of the originals.
If you are interested in a short, readable English translation of Rumi’s poetry, this book offers a fine place to start.
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“Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather.
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Bookstore Cat [Senryū]
Stall: A Haiku Quartet
clouds glide in
like a naval armada,
only to loiter.
the sky is gray,
but no rain comes --
just the threat.
the threat wears thin --
unheeded until
thunder cracks!
a man shakes his fist
at the dense clouds:
a torrent falls.
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Mount Zhongnan [终南山] by Wang Wei [王维] [w/ Audio]
Taiyi stretches toward heaven;
Linked mountains reach into the sea.
Looking back, white clouds coalesce;
In the mist, the mist can't be seen.
A ridge is a boundary of worlds:
Cloudy or clear; with - or sans - tree.
In need of lodging for the night,
I ask the woodsman cross river from me.
This is poem #118 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.] The original in Simplified Chinese is:
太乙近天都， 连山接海隅。
白云回望合， 青霭入看无。
分野中峰变， 阴晴众壑殊。
欲投人处宿， 隔水问樵夫。
Tiger Riding for Beginners 