Discovered by Accident - by Du Mu

Here is a poem by the Tang poet Du Mu I stumbled upon this morning and decided to translate.  The poem has an interesting title -  偶题 - which literally could be translated as Accidental Topic.   But that doesn't seem quite right as the title for a poem as supple and profound as this is, as perhaps you'll agree once you read my translation.  Hard to believe this was written in the early 9th century.

The Way through

The human state of things

May be transmitted by verse

When we’re young

We tread light and easy

But that changes with

The coming years

Today finds us embarked

On a long ocean voyage

Raised on the waves

And buoyant with hope

Not yet arrived

At the Island of Peng Lai

Still short of those Immortal
Shores it seems

*  *  *  *  *

One explanatory note.  The reference in the last stanza to the Island of Peng Lai - this is a place where the Immortals resided located not so far off the coast of Mainland China.

Here's the text of the original:

  

道在人间或可传

小还轻变已多年

今来海上升高望

不到蓬莱不是仙

October Frost

A morning that

Passes for perfect

With the crispness in the air

The crabgrass wan and forlorn

With October's first frost

But a colorful swatch lies draped

Along the fringes of the lawn

Red maple and yellow ash

Even those JumpUps
Carmine pink and red
Still remain at the ready
For one more allegro leap
Dreaming of noonday's
Final blast of warmth 

I hope there’s an extra

Set of blueprints

For a day passing perfect
Just as today is

Somewhere safely
In storage

An Open Letter to Bill Gates On the Occasion of Downloading OpenOffice

Dear Bill --

For the majority of

My adult life writing

Legal briefs

Business plans

A novel and poems

Of assorted length

You've been my

Constant companion

As uber software vender

And grammatical scold

(in addition to other roles

you sometimes chose)

Long did I chaff under

The yoke of those lines

You insistently served up

Always spewing vermillion

If ever I ran even slightly afoul

Of some grammatical

Stricture you

And Mister Softie

Sought to uphold

When quite suddenly

Thanks to my laptop's

Untimely crashing

Yesterday I found myself

Bereft of further recourse

To the full function and use 

Of what I had previously

Deemed indispensable

But in such mishap

I found greater license

For reward as I'm now
Writing to inform you

Of my immediate withdrawal

From the ranks of the loyal hobbyists 

And assorted others who remain 

Licensees in good standing

Of your copyright
Protected work

As I have declined

To enroll as a member in

Your new software

Subscription scheme

(which by its evergreen 

terms seems more than
a tad overreaching)

Instead I've opted

To download a freeware

Program called

OpenOffice Pro

By which means

From this day forward

I am officially severing all

Legal connection between

You folks in Redmond

And the text of my poems

As henceforth my work

Will be exclusively based

On open source code

Very truly yours,

Joe Lamport

Another Poem by Du Mu

 

Here's my translation of another poem written by Du Mu in the mid 8th century.  This strikes me as incredibly contemporary in sentiment.

Parting from Minister Shen

What’s done is done

A ragged dream

What’s still to come

Is the road that winds

Into autumn

Old friends unseen

But remembered

Time brings us

To a sacred tower

Facing east

别沈处士

  

-->

旧事参差梦

新程逦迤秋

故人如见忆

时到寺东楼

A New Blank Document

A few thoughts about Enlightenment are coming into better focus for me this fall.  Maybe it’s not a mental state after all.  I mean maybe it really starts as a physical condition.  And that’s why so many religious disciplines cultivate a wide variety of physical regimens to help open the Path to novitiates and other seekers.

By understanding Enlightenment as more of a physical than mental state I don’t intend to denigrate it.  Far from it.  Only to suggest that it may be easier to attain in literal fashion -- as a physical lightening of the load we carry through life.  You can simulate this feeling by first carrying around a 20 pound weight in your backpack and then suddenly you remove it and right away you feel a surge of energy throughout your entire body frame.  It's like a jolt of oxygen enriched air in every breath you take.  (Achieving this same sensation without the benefit of 20 pound weights or oxygen mask, that's the challenge we all face.)  This too entails mastering detachment of a certain sort, a loosening of the normal physical bounds.  

A Dream of Blue House Street

I'm trying to resume the more regular practice of translating Chinese poetry.  It's such a great way to start the day.  Clinical studies have proven that a stanza of lyrical truth provides more stimulation than a cup and a half of the strongest dark roast.

Today's translation is of a poem by the Tang poet Du Mu.

Dispatched from the Heart

Down and out

By rivers and lakes

A bottle of wine in hand

A slender girl

With a narrow waist

Light in the palm of my hand

Ten years is

A long time to nap

Even to dream of Yangzhou

Laying claim to a place

On Blue House street

Is only a meager reward

遣懷

落魄江湖載酒行

楚腰纖細掌中輕

 
十年一覺揚州夢

贏得青樓薄倖名

 

 

A FedEx Package from JPMorgan Chase

October 1st -- for immediate release.

 It was a long summer but today I feel as if fall has finally arrived.  And with it my mood has lifted too.  Melancholy took root in my soul in June and then spread out in crabgrass-like fashion, growing with abandon all summer long; but suddenly it seems to have been stopped dead in its tracks, withered overnight, and in strange counter-cyclical fashion, I find myself invigorated this morning, welcoming autumn with a strong sense of promise -- the prospect of a fresh start in my front and back yard after all.

I want to take the occasion to announce the launch of 1000 new ships.  I am re-engaging with the world effectively immediately.  Take particular note that this blog is being rechristened as part of the effort.  Henceforth this blog -- which up until now primarily served as a dumping ground for all the poems I otherwise didn't know what to do with -- is being reshaped as an online journal, my day book in fact, where you will continue having the chance to read my most personal thoughts, although now recast in prose form.  It's all still at no cost to you, I should add.

The fact of the matter is that I'm not writing so much poetry these days.  The depression pretty much killed that off, at least for now.  If there's ever a change in the status of poetry and my soul, I promise you'll be one of the very first to know.

* * * * *

Just as I was in the midst of writing this post, the door buzzer rang.   It was the FedEx delivery man summoning me downstairs for a package.  So mid-sentence I lost my train of thought and went downstairs where I found waiting for me an envelope from JP Morgan Chase.  Now usually, I'm thrilled to receive a package and am all in favor of tearing them open right away, eager for the thrill and excitement.  It could be a million dollar check, after all, albeit not very likely.

But today was different.  I was so engrossed in what I was thinking about, I hurried back upstairs, set the unopened envelope down beside my computer, and immediately resumed writing.  That's how important it was for me to get the Lampoetry blog relaunched.  If you're curious to find out what's in the envelope (as I am now, quite frankly) you'll just have to come back for more Lampoetry tomorrow.