User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: Grass 草
March 25, 2009 at 4:55 AMPete,
Always delighted to contribute to this forum. And, by the way, the last line is what motivated me to post this particular Blake poem.
tommaz,
Happy you also like Blake. I'll definitely check out your references. Somewhere in our attic we have a collection of copies of several of Blake's original art works. I need to track those down.
Bill
Posted on: Grass 草
March 24, 2009 at 4:20 PMHello,
Beautiful poem as usual. I think if you read French, then the French translation is beautiful, and also the footnotes are informing. If you do read French, then read the poem aloud for the musicality of the language.
Footnote 2 discusses the closing two lines:
又送王孙去
萋萋满别情
It says that 王孙 is historically a reference that designates a young woman's spouse who left for a long voyage in the springtime, and has not returned. Each spring she watches the grass again grow in all of its beautiful abundance and is painfully reminded of her departed husband.
The footnote goes on to say that 王孙 comes from a passage in a poem by Li-sao (don't know this poet) who is one of China's most ancient poets where he says:
王孙 is traveling, Alas! And is not returning,
And here the pretty wild grass is growing again, Alas!
It is so truly beautiful.
The French translator goes on to say that the depth and complexity of the closing two lines of this poem are not really undertandable without this ancient reference, and it is amazing how much can be compressed into two lines of Chinese poetry. Moreover, the confidence in deep knowledge of the reader is always a merit in the eyes of the Chinese.
Wow! One can spend years studying these poems.
Also, another poet to read in this context is the English poet William Blake. It is said they he used to meditate in the nude on his front porch and contemplate life. Here is an example of his poetry:
SONGS OF INNOCENCE
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
PIPING down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of peasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he, laughing, said to me:
'Pipe a song about a lamb!'
So I piped with merry cheer.
'Piper, pipe that song again;'
So I piped: he wept to hear.
'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!'
So I sang the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
'Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read.'
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
Bill
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 9: Wang Plans Revenge
March 21, 2009 at 6:29 AMA little late here but it seems to me that using "busting my hump" in any translation is absurd. I've been in the states for almost 69 years now and have probably heard that expression once. Maybe.
On the other hand, one often says, "busting my butt." It's actually quite accepted.
"To hump" as mentioned above is quite common for having sex. That's about it.
Given the last two lessons, I imagine one might expect to say, "Holy moly, he's busting his hump!" It's of course totally incomprehensible. Sorry, Pete, I couldn't resist that (-: (-:
Why aren't common, and current expressions used?
Bill
Posted on: Sympathy for the Farmers -- 悯农
March 18, 2009 at 4:16 AMHello Pete,
I'm a big fan of Gary Snyder's work. There was an interesting profile of him in the New Yorker not long ago.
Interesting you should mention this. I read it this morning. It motivated my initial note just above.
Bill
Posted on: Sympathy for the Farmers -- 悯农
March 17, 2009 at 6:58 PMPete,
我先要说万谢! 每诗歌都很漂亮. 为什么？
A big part is your adding, first, the historical context, and second, such beautiful renditions to aid in our own interpretations of each poem.
This morning I was reading some poems by Gary Snyder. He won the Pullizter Prize in Poetry for a selection of his poetry called "Turtle Island." This was about native Americans.
Gary's poetry is strongly influenced by Chinese and Japanese cultures and their poetry. In fact, his poems pointed me to Tang Dynasty poets when I was closer to your age in 1970.
Gary uses his poetry and life style as a vehicle to warn us about what we were and are doing to the environment, and this was before there was much awareness. For those of you who are familiar with Gary you know he passed many years in India, China and Japan studying Buddhism before it was popularized.
And for those of you familiar with these teachings, it is clear that the elimination of the illusion of our sense of separation from nature: The trees, the kelp in the oceans, flowers, etc., are our external lungs; we are inseparable from them as they from us.
With such a realization one cannot pollute without feeling a sense of self destruction.
Poets through the ages have been harbingers of things to come by pointing out the suffering and negligence of all sentient beings and the planet for which we are responsible.
Thus, this so beautiful poem on the sowers and harvesters of grain of so, so long ago still has longevity.
Bill
Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子
March 16, 2009 at 5:37 AMIt's not so much the money as the people who have or do not have the money. Humility, frugality, arrogance and spenders are qualities one find in across the financial spectrum. They are part and partial of human nature. Wealth and poverty are magnifying glasses that permit us to see exagerated views of these qualities.
Hey, this is the stuff out of which great plays and films are created ...
But remember, when it rains even the stone statues of buddha cry.
Bill
Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子
March 15, 2009 at 9:43 PMHi henning,
I once ran into serious problems for an irritated comment which I would have never suspected to have any "face-relation".
I can also relate to this, and have even been in situations like that here in the US. I can recall several that occured when we lived in a black ghetto in Seattle when I was in graduate school at the University of Washington. I thought, "Yikes! Oh no. Trouble." Nothing really happened. I was just frightened because of my own "white guy" assumptions. It's so easy to trip on little cultural differences. Still, all was quickly forgiven with a laugh and usually followed by a neighborhood BBQ. I was in the end known as the "grey guy (-:" in the neighborhood.
Live and learn,
Bill
Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子
March 15, 2009 at 7:50 PMmatt_c,
我同意你的意见. Tolerance of cultural differences is extremely important. We need to shed our cultural skins and look at the human aspect of things.
In my 68 years I've visited most countries in this world of ours, and the one thing that strikes is how similar we all are. I'm happy to say that I've good friends in almost every country I've visited, and when I sit down to dinner with them, and discuss their day-to-day lives, their concerns, these things are universal.
The notion of 面子 is not uniquely Chinese as has been pointed out. And it is a manifestation of so much of what makes us beautifully human that it makes me 笑.
Bless the fellow who buys me a delicious Chinese dinner for whatever reason. My only response would be, 很好吃, 多谢. And if he feels proud, happier, more comfortable, then wonderful ! I'm happy to see that.
Bill
Posted on: Broken, Busted, and Smashed
March 30, 2009 at 4:14 PMhenning,
And the beating-up-definition also fits - my wife yesterday taught me the 北京 threat: "我cei4了你!".
Funny how beating-up has so many variations in all languages:
I think anything that is destructive can be used in English: Smash, break, bust, kick, blast, rip, total (used often for cars - My car is totaled).
I'm sure most people have heard various expressions in US films. Lots of references to one's rear end:
Bust your butt, kick your ass, etc ...
Bill