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POETRY/TRANS.: 2 poems & "googogigglabyte"

From:J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 16, 2002, 22:19
    I just wanted to share two poems by two contemporary Chinese poets
(translate into Natlang(s) and/or Conlang(s) if you dare, hehe, have fun
::wicked grin:: [ALSO look below my sig.line for translations of
"googolgigglabyte". Much thanx to those who have contributed so far...]):


    Stars, Stars, and More Stars
        - tuning up

The dew that vanished
Last night without a trace

Has come back tonight
Like a thief

Has come back
Back

Has like a thief come back again
Unknown traces on my face

                --- Lo Ch'ing (pen name for Lo Ch'ing-che, b. 1948),
                from _The Childlike Mind_
                translated from Chinese by Joseph R. Allen


    Cicada

I awake amid the transparent buzz of cicada wings, pondering
    the scorching transparency that envelops last night's exciting
    and yet depressing topic of conversation, enveloping it in
    the gelatinous capsule of summer, perfect for swallowing
    whole, no need to chew

Opening the blinds, I search for it. But how could sound ever
    function as our eager guide? In addition to the power of our
    intellect, we must trust our senses; yet, isn't my frustration
    the result of once-mistaken senses, that mistaken guide?

They say that the life of a cicada is an apt model for the tragic
    hero. Humble and slow, it steadfastly struggles on; once
    leaving the damp mud, it follows the trunk of the tree,
    winding its way upward. I shall sing the praises of its
    ascending ambition, its lonely, brave ambition

It reaches its adult stage amidst the dew and rain

Passing through knotty burls that swirl like the circles of Dante's
    inferno. It crawls, like Dante, the devoted Dominican
    pilgrim, without faltering it crawls towards that world of
    predestined glory, but in that glory is loneliness

Loneliness should never enter into our topic of conversation,
    rarefied and intellectual as it is - three parts classical and
    seven parts stormy romanticism. Last night we discussed the
    future of society and the nation, the pattern of history,
    trying to establish a definition of love . . .

Undefinable love. "For example," he said, "merely to act on
    one's devotion and passion will destroy the devotion and
    passion of another. Brief persistence can be more terrifying
    than eternal coldness, don't you agree?"

I stammer, say nothing. The next day awakening amid the
    transparent buzz of cicada wings, I ponder the exciting, yet
    depressing questions of society, nation, and history, as well
    as the definition of love. Raising the window, with sound as
    my guide, I seem to have located its position. It reaches its
    adult stage amidst the dew and rain

Its scorching call announces now that it has reached its final
    destination. I seem to have located its glorious position -
    front and right of the flaming phoenix tree

                                                August 1978

                            --- Yang Mu (pen name for Wang Ching-hsien, b.
1940),
                            from _Europe_
                            translated from Chinese by Joseph R. Allen

---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Hanuman Zhang
Avatar of Sun WuKong, a.k.a "Monkey", a.k.a. "the Monkey King,"
a.k.a. "TricksterGod of the Glorious Anti-Imperialist Chinese Boxers"

    =>  om hung hanumatay rudratmakai hung phat  <=
    mantra to Hanuman the Hindu Monkey TricksterGod

<=  thee prIs ov X.iztenz iz aetern'l warfaer 'N' kreativ playf'llnizz...  =>

googolgigglabyte
goegolgiechelbijt  - of - met een vette megagrijns
googolriderbyte
googolspassoctet
Egúgelegigalibaith
cimacimakekehapi
pokatra oemadroabhethetre
va'i utne tuktukt'ishushukuko`g tuk  go`go`o`gwgaga

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Pablo David Flores <pablo-flores@...>