Category Archives: Sound Recording

“Absolute” [Poetry Style #1] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
With wear you will decay outside,
   But inside resides the vital force.
 Approach the Absolute through the Void:
   One's strength will grow, and vim will course.
 You can know the world and its Way,
   Across space and time -- to the Source.
 To desolation range hang dark clouds,
   Air still as latitudes of the horse,
 Move beyond all one knows by sight,
   And gain the Center -- but not by force --
 Hold onto this strength by hook or crook,
   And flow the Endless by watercourse.

NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a crude translation of the first of the twenty-four poems. This poem’s Chinese title is 雄浑, and its translated titles include: “Energy – Absolute” [Giles] and “Vigorous.”

“Autumn” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
1 
All day I have watched the purple vine leaves
   Fall into the water.
 And now in the moonlight they still fall,
 But each leaf is fringed with silver.

“Scorn not the Sonnet” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
2
British (English) School; William Wordsworth (1770-1850) ; National Trust, Wordsworth House; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-wordsworth-17701850-130624
Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
  Mindless of its just honours; with this key
  Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody
  Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
 A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;
  With it Camöens soothed an exile's grief;
  The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf
  Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned
 His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp,
  It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land
  To struggle through dark ways, and, when a damp
  Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
 The thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
 Soul-animating strains -- alas, too few!

“Picking Mulberries” by Ouyang Xiu [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Adrift on West Lake in a wine-laden, colorful skiff:
   As flutes play fast and lutes, deftly
   And a jade cup circuits swiftly,
 The boat's calm rocking lulls the drunk into sleep.

Thin clouds seem to float right under the rudderless boat.
   The water's blue matches the sky's,
   As lake to sky and back move eyes,
 "Do the clouds above match those that in the water float?"

“You know where you despise” by Alexander Pope [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
You know where you despise
 (Tother day) my little Eyes,
 Little Legs, and little Thighs,
 And some things, of little Size,
 You know where. 

You, tis true, have fine black eyes,
 Taper legs, and tempting Thighs,
 Yet what more than all we prize
 Is a Thing of little Size,
 You know where.

“Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
The way a crow
 Shook down on me
 The dust of snow
 From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
 A change in mood
 And saved some part 
 Of a day I had rued.

“Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
The fountains mingle with the river
   And the rivers with the ocean,
 The winds of heaven mix forever
   With a sweet emotion;
 Nothing in the world is single;
   All things by a law divine
 In one spirit meet and mingle.
      Why not I with thine? --

See the mountains kiss high heaven
   And the waves clasp one another;
 No sister-flower would be forgiven
   If it disdained its brother;
 And the sunlight clasps the earth
   And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
 What is all this sweet work worth
   If thou kiss not me?

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” (254) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
"Hope" is the thing with feathers --
   That perches in the soul --
 And sings the tune without the words --
   And never stops -- at all --

And sweetest -- in the Gale -- is heard --
   And sore must be the storm --
 That could abash the little Bird
   That kept so many warm --

I've heard it in the chillest land --
   And on the strangest Sea --
 Yet -- never -- in Extremity,
   It asked a crumb -- of me.

“Fluid” [Poetry Style #24] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Like water spilling over rocks?
   Like a bead's roll across the floor?
 Cliches, they fail to tell the story,
   As no doll shows life's splendor.
 But the Earth' unsupported spin through space,
   As the heaven's pivot and sprawl for more...
 If you could find how it all began,
   You'd see it'll be as it was before.
 The high and bright realm of the gods
   Returns to nothing and nevermore.
 And if you lived ten-thousand years,
   You might find yourself in days of yore.

NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the twenty-fourth of the twenty-four poems. This poem has been alternately titled “The Flowing Style,” “Fluid,” “Motion,” etc. by varied translators from its Chinese title of 流动.

“The Knight’s Tomb” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?
 Where may the grave of that good man be? --
 By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,
 Under the twigs of a young birch tree!
 The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,
 And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,
 And whistled and roared in the winter alone,
 Is gone, -- and the birch in its stead has grown. --
   The Knight's bones are dust,
   And his good sword rust; --
   His soul is with the saints, I trust.