Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell
Be once disclosed to us
The clamor for their loveliness
Would burst the Loneliness —
“Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell” (1493) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
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Tag Archives: Quatrain
“Chemical Analysis” by Stephen Vincent Benet [w/ Audio]
She's slender hands and pretty lips,
And seafoam and rosemary.
Her ears are pointed at the tips,
She stayed so long in Fairy.
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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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Quatrain 62 of the Rubaiyat of Rumi [w/ Audio]
If you desire the self, get out of the self.
Leave the shallow stream behind
And flow into the river deep and wide.
Don't be an ox pulling the wheel of the plow,
Turn with the stars that wheel above you.
As translated in: Helminski, Kabir (ed.). 2018. The Pocket Rumi. Boulder, CO: Shambhala South Asia Editions. p. 4; translators: Kabir Helminski, Camille Helminski, and Lida Saedian
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“A Needle’s Eye” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]
All the stream that's roaring by
Came out of a needle's eye;
Things unborn, things that are gone,
From needle's eye still goad it on.
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“Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning [w/ Audio]
Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me.
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“The Pasture” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too.
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“The Very Self” by Walter de la Mare [w/ Audio]
Clear eyes, beneath clear brows, gaze out at me,
Clear, true and lovely things therein I see;
Yet mystery, past ev'n naming, takes their place
As mine stay pondering on that much-loved face.
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“Ascending Happiness Plateau” by Li Shangyin [w/ Audio]
At day's end, feeling ill-at-ease,
Riding a cart to the plateau.
The setting sun fires glorious skies,
But a yellow dusk is coming.
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Retort to “Arise, fair sun…” [Poem]
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Romeo & juliet: act 2, scene 2
Oh, moon, slip cautiously across the night. They whispered to the sun to murder you. So, slink way down before the sun takes flight, 'fore that proud body can make much ado.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 