I feel my heart melting
in the mildness like candles:
my veins are slow oil
and not wine,
and I feel my life fleeing
hushed and gentle like the gazelle.
translated by David Garrison
Month: October 2018
Staying in the Mountains in Summer by Yü Hsüan-chi
I’ve moved here to the Immortal’s place:
Flowers everywhere we didn’t plant before.
The courtyard trees are bent like clothes-horses.
At the feast, winecups float in a new spring.
Dark balcony. Path through deep bamboo.
Long summer dress. Confusion of books.
I sing in the moonlight and ride a painted boat,
Trusting the wind to blow me home again.
translated by Geoffrey Waters
Our Backs Are to the Cypress byLeah Goldberg
Our backs are to the cypress.
We are hiding the mountains behind our houses.
We are ashamed to see the star.
We hurry to the commotion of the streets
so that our hearts won’t be confused
by open spaces.
And so we live
in closed rooms,
in streets belted by telephone and telegraph wires.
It is so far from all that we loved innocently.
On the other side of ourselves, we live
in our times.
translated by Ramah Commanday
“You can’t learn less”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“You can’t learn less”
R. Buckminster Fuller, architect, writer, inventor
O Sleeping Falls the Maiden Snow by Kenneth Patchen
O sleeping falls the maiden snow
Upon the cold branches of the city
And oh! my love is warm and safe in my arms
Nearer, nearer comes the hell-breath of these times
O God! what can I do to guard her then
O sleeping falls the maiden snow
Upon the bitter place of our shelterlessness
But oh! for this moment, she whom I love
Lies safely in my arms
from Nineteen Old Poems by an anonymous Chinese poet
A friend who is not firm as a great rock
Is of no profit and idly bears the name.
translated by Arthur Waley
Leonard Durso 