love is a total waste of time
you and I know that
but there’s something about its madness
that opens the eyes and clears the mind
translated by David Young
Month: February 2014
Written at Chulin Temple by Chu Fang
The months and years compel our lives
here the mist and clouds abound
how many times will I again know
the welcome of Chulin Temple
translated by Red Pine
from Fighting South of the Ramparts by Li Po (Li Bai)
What have the generals accomplished?
what they know
is less than what we’ve learned–
a sword’s a stinking thing
a wise man will use
as seldom as he can.
translated by David Young
Billy Wilder on actors learning their lines
“As someone who directed scripts that I myself had cowritten, what I demanded from actors was very simple: learn your lines.
That reminds me. George Bernard Shaw was directing a production of his play Pygmalion, with a very well-known illustrious actor, Sir Something. The fellow came to rehearsal, a little bit drunk, and he began to invent a little. Shaw listened for a while and then yelled, Stop! For Christ’s sake, why the hell didn’t you learn the script?
Sir Something said, What on earth are you talking about? I know my lines.
Shaw screamed back at him, Yes, you know your lines, but you don’t know my lines.
Blue Water Song by Li Po (Li Bai)
Blue water
burning moon
on South Lake
he gathers lilies
the lotus flowers
whisper
the lone boatman
sighs
translated by David Young
Autumn Lines by Li Po (Li Bai)
Clean fall wind
clear fall moon
leaves heaped by the wind
leaves scattered
a cold raven
flaps slowly
from his roost
thoughts of you
fill my head
will I ever
see you again?
the ache
around my heart
gets bigger
translated by David Young
the cat settling in: a tanka
the cat creeps slowly
across the length of the bed
looks for safe haven
to rest his tired body
sighs before closing his eyes
from The Boat by Kabir
How lucky Kabir is, that surrounded by all this joy
he sings inside his own little boat.
His poems amount to one soul meeting another.
These songs are about forgetting dying and loss.
They rise above both coming in and going out.
translated by Robert Bly
Is my soul asleep? by Antonio Machado
Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that work
in the night stopped? And the water-
wheel of thought, is it
going around now, cups
empty, carrying only shadows?
No, my soul is not asleep.
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its eyes wide open
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.
translated by Robert Bly
tanka 2 by Ariwara No Narihira
Neither waking or sleeping,
I saw the night out,
and now spend
all day in thought,
staring at these long spring rains.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
Leonard Durso 