May 28, 2004 - 10:51 p.m.

I TRY TRANSLATING!

李白

山中問答
問余何意栖碧山
笑而不答心自閑
桃花流水窅然去
別有天地在人間


Mountainside Question and Answer

"Why do you stay on Green Mountain?"

I just smile for my heart is at ease

peach petal flows distant downstream

the elsewhere realm of men worlds away.


                               tr. Me !


     heart at ease 
                   
                   _/
                     like a peach blossom pulled
                            along in a stream.

                     Just as it floats away into the unknown
                     / 
                   /_
So too are there worlds within worlds/
places beyond the realm of men/
different planes of existence?.

------------------------------------------------
literally:

Ask me what reason stay green mountain
Smile but not answer heart self idle
Peach blossom flow water far go
Apart have heaven earth in human world


Last line:

      別               有               天         地    在 人 間
1=Apart(in solitude)[i havethere is] heaven and earth amongst men
2=Apart(elsewhere)  [there is a]           world       amongst men

1=In solitude i have all that i need
2=It feels like the realm of men is worlds away

other worlds; humankind far-removed

Distant place,

among men

A world apart; from the human realm released.


A world away from that of men exists.

A world apart from the human realm exists.
                       domain of men.

                      real world
elsewhere is the realm of men
There are worlds beyond the realm of men




life is so different here)

Other:

"In Yixian County in southern Anhui there is a mountain known 
as Green Jade Hill (Bi'Shan) whose popular name is Little 
Peach Orchard (Xiao'Tao'Yuan). Here in the depths of densely 
wooded hills the inhabitants had carried on the simple and 
plain life-style and customs of their ancestors. After 
spending some time here, Li Bai found it hard to tear himself 
away from the place. In a poem entitled "A Dialogue in the 
Mountains", he had this to say:

If you ask why I like to linger on at Green Jade Hill,
I smile but say naught so carfree do I feel here.
The stream rippling carrying the blossoms I know not where,
Surely a different world it is so different from elsewhere."


You ask for what reason I stay on the green mountain,
I smile, but do not answer, my heart is at leisure.
Peach blossom is carried far off by flowing water,
Apart, I have heaven and earth in the human world.


If you ask me why I dwell among green mountains,
I should laugh silently; my soul is serene.
The peach blossom follows the moving water.
There is another heaven and earth beyond the world of men. 
....




Dylan Thomas

A Letter To My Aunt Discussing The Correct Approach To Modern Poetry
...
Perhaps it would be best if you
Created something very new,
A dirty novel done in Erse
Or written backwards in Welsh verse,
Or paintings on the backs of vests,
Or Sanskrit psalms on lepers' chests.
But if this proved imposs-i-ble
Perhaps it would be just as well,
For you could then write what you please,
And modern verse is done with ease.

Do not forget that 'limpet' rhymes
With 'strumpet' in these troubled times,
And commas are the worst of crimes;
Few understand the works of Cummings,
And few James Joyce's mental slummings,
And few young Auden's coded chatter;
But then it is the few that matter.
Never be lucid, never state,
If you would be regarded great,
The simplest thought or sentiment,
(For thought, we know, is decadent);
Never omit such vital words
As belly, genitals and -----,
For these are things that play a part
(And what a part) in all good art.
Remember this: each rose is wormy,
And every lovely woman's germy;
Remember this: that love depends
On how the Gallic letter bends;
Remember, too, that life is hell
And even heaven has a smell
Of putrefying angels who
Make deadly whoopee in the blue.
These things remembered, what can stop
A poet going to the top?

A final word: before you start
The convulsions of your art,
Remove your brains, take out your heart;
Minus these curses, you can be
A genius like David G.

Take courage, aunt, and send your stuff
To Geoffrey Grigson with my luff,
And may I yet live to admire
How well your poems light the fire.


e.e. cummings

	mortals)
		climbi
			ng i
			nto eachness begi
			n
        dizzily
                swingthings
                of speeds of
	 	trapeze gush somersaults
		open ing
			hes shes
		&meet&
			swoop
				fully is are ex
						quisite theys of re
		turn		
              a
              n
              d
         fall which now drop who all dreamlike

         (im




Former-person, once rode brown-crane away, 
This-place emptily left, brown-crane-building. 
Brown-crane once gone, never again returns, 
White clouds, thousand-at/years empty long-slow. 
Clear (sky) stream, sharp-clear Han-yang trees, 
Fragrant-grass rich-thick, Ying-wu-Isle. 
Day ends home-place, what point is? 
Mist waves, river-upon make one sad.


 
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