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Sep. 19th, 2005 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jemzsince half my flist is doing it and I am such a follower (baaaa!) that here are some for you to enjoy.
Some Poetry from the Six Collections
[from the Gosenshuu, 951 A.D.]
Kore ya kono
Yuku mo kaeru mo
Wakaretsutsu
Shiru mo shiranu mo
Ausaka no seki
This is the Barrier
Where people come and people go
Exchanging farewells;
For friends and strangers alike
This is Meeting Barrier
Semimaru (translted by Donald Keene)
[from the Shuishu, 997]
Kauraki yori
Kuraki michi ni zo
Irinubeki
Haruka ni terase
Yama no ha no tsuki
Out of the dark,
Into a dark path
I now must enter:
Shine on me from afar,
Moon of the mountain fringe!
Izumi Shikibu
Wasuraruru
Mi wo ba omowazu
Chikaiteshi
Hito no inochi no
Oshiku mo aru kana
It does not matter
That I am forgotten,
But I pity
His forsworn life.
Lady Ukon (translated by Kenneth Rexroth)
and now one of my favorite poems by John Keats. Tis fabulous.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
I.
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness.
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legen haunts about the shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
II.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never cast thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And,happy melodist, unwearied,
Forever piping songs forever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
Forever warm and still to be enjoy'd
Forever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
III.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
IV.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble mena nd maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of the thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty' - that is all
Ye know on earth,m and all ye need to know.
John Keats
My last poem (yes, on a poetry splurge, kthx) is by Matthew Stepanek, who wrote poetry since he was three and is currently living with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. He lost three siblings to the same disease and his hopefulness and his positive outlook on life makes me smile and dream of better things in the realm of cancer/genetic disorders/diseases.
Heartsong
I have a song, deep in my heart,
And only I can hear it.
If I close my eyes and sit very still
It is so easy to listen to my song.
When my eyes are open and
I am so busy and moving and busy,
If I take time and listen very hard,
I can still hear my Heartsong.
It makes me feel happy.
Happier than ever.
Happier than everywhere
And everything and everyone
In the whole wide world.
Happy like thinking about
Going to Heaven when I die.
My Heartsong sounds like this --
I love you! I love you!
How Happy you can be!
How happy you can make
This whole world be!
And soemtimes it's other
Tunes and words, too,
But it always sings the
Same special feeling to me.
It makes me think of
Jame, and Katie and Stevie,
And other wonderful things.
This is my special song.
But do you know what?
All people have a special song
Inside their hearts!
Everyone in the whole wide world
Has a special Heartsong.
If you believe in magical, musical hearts,
And if you believe you can be happy,
Then you, too, will hear your song.
Mattie J.T. Stepanek
Enjoy....♥
Some Poetry from the Six Collections
[from the Gosenshuu, 951 A.D.]
Kore ya kono
Yuku mo kaeru mo
Wakaretsutsu
Shiru mo shiranu mo
Ausaka no seki
This is the Barrier
Where people come and people go
Exchanging farewells;
For friends and strangers alike
This is Meeting Barrier
Semimaru (translted by Donald Keene)
[from the Shuishu, 997]
Kauraki yori
Kuraki michi ni zo
Irinubeki
Haruka ni terase
Yama no ha no tsuki
Out of the dark,
Into a dark path
I now must enter:
Shine on me from afar,
Moon of the mountain fringe!
Izumi Shikibu
Wasuraruru
Mi wo ba omowazu
Chikaiteshi
Hito no inochi no
Oshiku mo aru kana
It does not matter
That I am forgotten,
But I pity
His forsworn life.
Lady Ukon (translated by Kenneth Rexroth)
and now one of my favorite poems by John Keats. Tis fabulous.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
I.
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness.
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legen haunts about the shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
II.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never cast thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And,happy melodist, unwearied,
Forever piping songs forever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
Forever warm and still to be enjoy'd
Forever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
III.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
IV.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble mena nd maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of the thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty' - that is all
Ye know on earth,m and all ye need to know.
John Keats
My last poem (yes, on a poetry splurge, kthx) is by Matthew Stepanek, who wrote poetry since he was three and is currently living with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. He lost three siblings to the same disease and his hopefulness and his positive outlook on life makes me smile and dream of better things in the realm of cancer/genetic disorders/diseases.
Heartsong
I have a song, deep in my heart,
And only I can hear it.
If I close my eyes and sit very still
It is so easy to listen to my song.
When my eyes are open and
I am so busy and moving and busy,
If I take time and listen very hard,
I can still hear my Heartsong.
It makes me feel happy.
Happier than ever.
Happier than everywhere
And everything and everyone
In the whole wide world.
Happy like thinking about
Going to Heaven when I die.
My Heartsong sounds like this --
I love you! I love you!
How Happy you can be!
How happy you can make
This whole world be!
And soemtimes it's other
Tunes and words, too,
But it always sings the
Same special feeling to me.
It makes me think of
Jame, and Katie and Stevie,
And other wonderful things.
This is my special song.
But do you know what?
All people have a special song
Inside their hearts!
Everyone in the whole wide world
Has a special Heartsong.
If you believe in magical, musical hearts,
And if you believe you can be happy,
Then you, too, will hear your song.
Mattie J.T. Stepanek
Enjoy....♥
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 06:19 pm (UTC)I haven't read Genjimonogotaru. What is it about?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 06:40 pm (UTC)I forget but I haven't read of it. I now remember hearing about it my Japanese History course in college.
Hmm...now I must pick up the book at the local bookstore. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 08:42 pm (UTC)Ooh, the Six Collections... I've only read a little of Gosenshuu and the Shuishuu, but I hope to get a collected volume someday. ^^
I hadn't heard of Stepanek, but since our taste in poetry is similar and since I like the message of the last, I'll have to seek him out. ^_^