NIXON'S RESIGNATION AND THE END OF THE 60's

Today is the 40th anniversary of Nixon's resignation. And, for me at least, the 40th anniversary of the end of the 60's as well. That evening, a few friends and I were going to check out a new music and dance place in Perrysburg. When we picked up the last person, Nixon was on TV resigning, so we stayed and watched that strange and unprecedented event before we took off. The scene at the club was just as surreal: There was no live band, just horrible recorded music with a drummer to emphasize the beat and make the songs more danceable. No one was in cut-offs, no one in a granny dress, no one in a fancy flowered shirt and torn jeans, no one in expensive leather pants and a work shirt. The guys were wearing suits(aargh!) with open-collared shirts and heavy chains and pendants. And out on the dance floor, people appeared to be actually trying to do particular dances, instead of just flopping around energetically like we always did at the Agora. The decade that began with Kennedy's assassination ended suddenly with both relief and unexpected cultural alienation.

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

If you're going to be going over the top and charging into no-mans land anyway, I suppose it's better for you if you go shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or "For the Cross!" than mumbling "Fuck me." But the question is what's going to get you going over the top in the first place.  

Japanese Poems of the Heian Period and Before: My Translations to English

Now out of the dark

onto the path of darkness

unwilling I go.

Linger to shine on me, moon,

poised at the rim of the hill.

    --Izumi Shikibu

Only for you, lord,

am I out here in spring fields,

pulling early greens,

with snow falling

thick on my sleeves.

  --Emperor Koko

君がため
春の野に出でて
若菜つむ
わが衣手に
雪はふりつつ

kimi ga tame haru no no ni idete wakana tsumu waga koromode ni yuki wa furi tsutsu 

Almost showed you plum blossoms

that were a light fall of snow.

--Akahito

How few the moments

that my gaze has lit upon

the flowers of spring.

How many the months and days

that I have passed without fruit.

--Fujiwara no Okikase

The sea slips from the shore.

One white wave again stands fast.

A crane in the surf.

--The Emperor Uda

Destinations unknown,

two ships that left harbor

side by side, now diverge.

--Saigyo Hoshi

Before the dubious shrine

I stand dumbstruck and crying.

--Saigyo Hoshi

This world, I try not to see,

still dogs me like a shadow.

--Minamoto no Toshiyori

...to be in this world

the seagull sleeping alone

on the tossing sea...

--Tagaya Masahiro

Leaves fall on the roof,

blurring the silence of night

and the sound of rain.

--Minamoto no Yorizane

Rising and falling, waves

scour the moon in the sea,

effacing nothing.

--Kiyowara Fukayabu

Between the eternals,

the unmoving mountains

and incontinent seas,

we are flowers, quickest

among fleeting flowers.

--Anon.

Long into summer nights

when I think at last of bed

the dawn cuckoo sings

--Tsurayuki

Spring, and a girl is walking

a path in peach blossom light.

     --Otomo no Yakamochi

Foam on the water

I am, that still wants to live

for a thousand years.

--Otomo no Yakamochi

To an empty land

she and I would go and live

alone together.

--Otomo no Yakamochi

Sad to meet in dreams:

My hand reaches out to you

and flounders awake.

--Otomo no Yakamochi

Should we never meet,

and entwine, threads making cord,

now this way, now that,

upon what line shall I string

all the jewels of my life?

--Sakanoe Korenori

Yes, she may not think of me

not ever forgetting her.

--Anon.

Plum trees bloom again.

Empty as a locust shell,

my own springless world.

--Anon.

Love without requite:

a prayer in the temple

behind a starving god.

--Lady Kasa

But by its own call

on the evergreen mountain

the deer knows the fall.

--Onakatomi Yoshinobu

Unmistakably

even here, far south in Tsu,

winter's come at last

to my cottage, hidden down

in a blanket of rushes.

--Minamoto no Shigeyuki

That this day too comes

to dusk:  more clear with each note

of the temple bell.

--Anon.

Unbearably cold,

sanderlings cried in the wind

across the river

the night I went to see her

whom I loved beyond bearing.

--Tsurayuki

Short as a segment

of Naniwa marsh reed,

not even that much

time for us to meet again

on the long passage, is there?

    --Lady Ise

 難波潟 

みじかき芦の
ふしのまも
あはでこの世を
過ぐしてよとや

Naniwa gata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo o sugushite yo to ya 

BARCO NEGRO

Dim in the mist of morning
off the shore of Akashi:
the island hiding the boat
upon which sail all my thoughts.

     --my translation

The fado song, "Barco Negro" always reminds me of this brief poem by Hitomaru.  Here is a very powerful rendition by Mariza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElLSBx9Jo8

EVEN NON-KHMER SPEAKERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO GUESS WHAT THIS IS

Chruuk touch nih tiw psaa.

Chruuk touch nih niw pteah.

Chruuk touch nih nyam sach koo.

Chruuk touch nih kmian sach sah.

Chruuk touch nih yum, “wii, wii, wii,”

haeuy ruet tiw pteah.

TRANSLATIONS OF SOME CHINESE CLASSICAL POEMS WITH BUDDHIST THEMES

The Temple of Teeming Fragrance,

measureless miles in summit clouds.

Ancient forest, a pathless way.

Deep mountains, directionless bell.

Spring water over jagged rocks.

Yellow sun on cool green pines.

Twilight, winding pool.  Quiet sitting

uncoils the poison dragon of the heart.

     --Wang Wei

Deer Fence

Empty Mountain.
Seeing no one.
Hearing someone's
echoing voice.
The late day sun
enters again
the deep forest,
shining once more
on the green moss.
   --Wang Wei

In my old age, I want only peace.

The ten thousand things are not my concern.

I've no plans for the rest of my life

but to come back to this, my ancient woods.

Piney wind blows my girdle open.

Mountain moon lights upon the lute I play.

So where's the warp and weft of the world?

Fishermen's songs come far up the inlet.

     --Wang Wei

A Buddhist Retreat Behind Broken Mountain Temple

Clear, quiet dawn enters the old temple.
Early sun brightens the forest heights.
Crooked path comes to a secluded space.
A monk's cottage deep in flowers and trees.
Light through the mountains plays over bird flight.
A deep pool mirrors both sky and heart.
Ten thousand sounds of nature are suffused
with the one tone of the temple bell.
     --Chang Jian

Alt:  Ten thousand sounds of nature are resolved
         in the one tone of the temple bell.

TO A JAPANESE MONK RETURNING HOME

Destined to come seeking the source in China.

Your voyage here was like a dream of distance,

floating between heaven and the vast green sea.

Now, the vessel goes lightly that carries the Way.

Water and moon are solitary as your Zen.

Fish and dragons absorb the sound of your chanting.

The single lamp of your compassion, its light

returns to watchers at the heart of the world.

     --Qian Qi

TO SOUTH CREEK SEEKING DAO MAN CHANG IN HIS SECRET PLACE

All along the single path,

footprints in strawberry moss.

White clouds over quiet islands.

Spring grass latching the idle gate.

After rain, the look of the pines.

Up the mountain, the river’s source.

Sitting Zen in flowers by the creek.

Face to face, I forget what to say.

     --Liu Changqing

Beginning a translation of Li Shangyin's series, "Poems for Someone"

POEMS FOR SOMEONE


I.

Your coming was an empty promise.
     Your going was without a trace.
At the fifth bell,
     moonlight slanted across the tower
as I wakened from despairing dreams,
     my cries not calling you back.
These pale words, this hasty letter,
     written before the ink could thicken.
One candle lights half the quilt
     with the kingfisher in a golden cage.
A faint scent of musk
     lingers on the embroidered lotus curtain.
Young Master Liu
     raged at the distance to the faerie hill.
But you are ten thousand mountains,
     ten thousand ranges farther.