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10.29.2011
10.21.2011
the joy inside
Keep knocking,
and the joy inside will
eventually open a window
and look out
to see who is there.
Rumi
and the joy inside will
eventually open a window
and look out
to see who is there.
Rumi
.
.
10.14.2011
curtains as illusion
Parrhasius, of Ephesus, a famous Greek painter who lived c.400 BC and practised mostly at Athens. The story of his contest with the younger painter Zeuxis in producing illusion is wellknown. Zeuxis painted some grapes so naturalistically that birds came to peck at them, and victory seemed to be his. He then asked Parrhasius to draw back the curtain concealing the latter's picture, but the curtain turned out to have been painted by Parrhasius. Zeuxis declared himself defeated; he had succeeded in deceiving the birds, but Parrhasius had succeeded in deceiving him.
10.13.2011
10.06.2011
from Transformations of the Lover
The body of the poet
is the body of the child and the crow.
A body in a book,
in the ashes of the curtains,
in the door,
in the stone staying up all night,
between my eyes and the book.
A body in the corners,
in the mirage procreating under the mirrors.
A body travelling farther and farther,
a flying stone which receives or beats the sky.
A body which opens in dreams,
closes at night, stretches between the letters.
A body like the letters.
A body retreating in the forefront of the lines.
A body like a suspended road,
unfolding its leaves and questioning space,
where the echo doesn't know its roles,
where there is nothing on my approaching stage
except the echo and the curtain...
is the body of the child and the crow.
A body in a book,
in the ashes of the curtains,
in the door,
in the stone staying up all night,
between my eyes and the book.
A body in the corners,
in the mirage procreating under the mirrors.
A body travelling farther and farther,
a flying stone which receives or beats the sky.
A body which opens in dreams,
closes at night, stretches between the letters.
A body like the letters.
A body retreating in the forefront of the lines.
A body like a suspended road,
unfolding its leaves and questioning space,
where the echo doesn't know its roles,
where there is nothing on my approaching stage
except the echo and the curtain...
Adonis
tr. Kamal Abu-Deeb
.
.
10.04.2011
10.03.2011
from beneath curtains
Also hidden from the gaze of men and the general public were the women themselves. If we were to peep inside the confines of her residence, we would see that women of classical Japan resembled Nô masks: her hair was parted down the middle and her hair was probably longer than her height (although she may have been little more than four feet high). Her face was powdered white; her lips were painted red with rouge; her teeth were blackened (ohaguro); and her eyebrows were plucked entirely out and replaced by charcoal ovals placed an inch or two above the original eyebrows, producing faces that looked like Nô masks of young women. With sight prohibited, women had to resort to subtle oblique ways to impart their taste, breeding, intelligence, education, and so on, since men and women could not see each other during courtship. Faith had to be placed on senses other than those available through face-to-face interactions. Women seated behind curtains could intimate their taste by letting the color combinations of their sleeves peek out from beneath curtains so men could admire their skill in blending shades of color for their costume. Or visually unavailable women could call upon the olfactory senses to indicate skill and taste by wearing robes scented by incense. Women of the upper classes blended incense themselves and scented robes by burning incense in close quarters to impart fragrance to color-coordinated robes.
Female Waka Poets: Love poetry in the Kokinshû
Yumiko Hulvey
..
Female Waka Poets: Love poetry in the Kokinshû
Yumiko Hulvey
..
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