either way you go
you lose
Month: February 2017
no rules
the heart
knows no rules
but its own
Lu Chai 鹿柴 by Wang Wei 王維 (translation)
a Wang Wei poem translated by Mary Tang on her Life is But This blog
from Tune: Yang-chou man (A Slow Song of Yangchow) Title: On 19 December 1853, the (Taiping) Rebels Are Approaching the Capital. Upon Hearing of the Recovery of Yangchow by Government Troops by Chiang Ch’un-lin
But what avails the common folk?
Under a dark moon, fireflies are drifting aimlessly;
The west wind sobs
Amidst ghost fires here and there.
But it hurts even more as I look toward the south:
Across the river, innumerable green-peaked hills!
translated by Irving Lo
my secret
oh tree
keep my secret
keep my secret
whispered to thee
and do not tell
do not tell
what was said
by me
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race…” 1859
From Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation blog
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race;
posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. “
~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859, English, economist, philosopher, writer
fullmoonsocial 2017: what glows bright
hidden by clouds
there here
we strain to see
what glows bright
beyond
another lovely translation from the Chinese by Mary Tang on Life is But This
My Chinese to English translation of a Song Dynasty poem by Dai Min: Early Summer in Zhang’s Garden by Dai Min The ponds are full of ducklings in shallows or in deep Ripe plums are in season, in sunshine or in shadows We drank in the east of the garden, drunk in the […]
via Early Summer in Zhang’s Garden by Dai Min (Translation) — Life is But This 命
Bent Willows by Li Chien
The river’s waves reflect a bent willow,
Unbothered by the darkening sky at dusk.
If this tree can be said to hold a grievance,
Who hasn’t felt the pangs of lost love?
I’m listless and the road home for a traveler is far;
And autumn winds rise after our leave-taking.
One day sporting a young girl’s pearl coiffure,
This morning I dread to look into the mirror bright.
translated by Hsin-sheng C. Kao
from a line by Sung Wan: falling petals
it sounded like
falling petals
but was only
pieces
of my heart
Leonard Durso 