With friends it’s not how many you have
but only whether they share your heart or not.
translated by Burton Watson
Author: zdunno03
from Bring the Wine! by Li Po
Why does my host tell me the money has run out?
Buy more wine at once–my friends have cups to be refilled!
My dappled mount,
my furs worth a thousand–
call the boy, have him take them and barter for fine wine!
Together we’ll wash away ten thousand years of care.
translated by Burton Watson
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author, writer, poet, journalist
Song 3 by Tzu-yeh
Nights are long and I cannot sleep
the clear moon so bright and shining.
I think I hear a voice fitfully calling,
and futilely I answer yes to the empty sky.
translated by Burton Watson
“The secret of life is in art.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
From “Ben Ruhi Bey Nasılım?”
a translation from the Turkish by Rukiye Uçar of a major Turkish poet
It has been a long while since I last posted a poetry translation. So, here comes a new one! 🙂
He gives his money if he has some
If not, he just leaves not saying a word
Then he has a pocket watch; he looks at it every now and then
But I know he has nothing to do with watches
Ruhi Bey has nothing to do with time anyway
He always wears the same clothes
He takes off his jacket in the summer
His tie is thin as string
I have never looked at his feet
His face is so interesting I don’t know if he has feet.
Edip Cansever, from “Ben Ruhi Bey Nasılım?”, translated by Rukiye Uçar
Song 2 by Tzu-yeh
In the hottest time, when all is still and windless
and summer clouds rise up at dusk,
under the dense leaves, take my hand
and we’ll float melons on the water, dunk crimson plums.
translated by Burton Watson
“The brain is wider than the sky…”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“The brain is wider than the sky…”
Emily Dickinson, poet
Complete Poems. 1924. Part One: Life CXXVI
The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.
The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.
The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.
Song by Tzu-yeh
Cool breezes–I sleep by the open window
where the light of the setting moon shines in.
At midnight there are no voices,
but within my gauze curtains, a pair of smiles.
translated by Burton Watson
from Long Ago I Lived in the Country by Su Tung-p’o
But those days are gone—I see them only in a painting.
No one believes me when I say I regret
not staying a herdsman all my life.
translated by Burton Watson
Leonard Durso 