Monday 30 December 2013

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Tuesday 10 December 2013

the last rose











The rose’s beauty remains buried in the dark awareness that it has of its inevitable decline. An awareness that is its very being, its unfurling leading to the final wither. 

Its beauty is merely the death that labours in its blossoming.


Roger Munier
tr. by M. Tweed













Friday 22 November 2013

Tuesday 12 November 2013

november

liye2








liye1






People say the sea is deep —
it's not as deep by half as love.
The sea at least still has its coasts, 
love's farthest reaches have no shore.
With harp in hand I'll climb the tower
To empty rooms full of the moon,
And strum the song of missing him.
My heart and harp will break as one.





Li Ye
poet-courtesan (and perhaps Daoist nun), 
8th century









liye3







(note: i borrowed the first 4 lines of the translation from Women Writers of Traditional China, while the last 4 are translated by A.Z. Foreman, i liked his version better in this case)



Thursday 7 November 2013

Sunday 20 October 2013

autumn
















I cross autumn fields
 In my dew-laden robes
 On my return home.
 Flowers woefully withered,
 Evening has yet to arrive.


Sōgi