Arthur Waley, Confucius: Analects Kenneth Rexroth, Classics Revisited Ezra Pound, New Selected Poems and Translations Ai Weiwei and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ai Weiwei Speaks David Hinton, The Selected Poems of Tu Fu Ezra Pound, Confucius:…
Viva Tang Ten thousand and two texts A thousand and three tweets 644 Facebook status updates 87 cell phone messages save or delete Enough already! Take a deep breath Leave behind the technology And go…
I give thanks for translators whose labors allow me to meditate on the teachings of sages throughout time, like David Hinton’s work with Confucius’s Analects… 1.16 The Master said: “Don’t grieve when people fail…
1.1 The Master said, “To learn, and at due times to practice what one has learned, is that not also a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is that not also a joy? To…
Devoted Buddhist Semi-recluse Noticer of the minute particulars Painter of vast emptiness Appreciator of interbeing moment by moment Befriender of sages, visitors and travelers moving in and out of the Ch’an world His wife dead…
Chris Wallach and I are starting a reading group in 2015 with the aim of reading one of the translations each month of such poets as Wang Wei, Han-Shan, Li Ch’ing-chao, Tu Fu, Su Tung-p’o, Bo Juyi,…
The window empty: two thickets of bamboo. The house tranquil: a single fragrant stove. Beyond the gate, it’s red dust everywhere, and in the city, that white sun hurries on, but I don’t chase after…
Autumn Love “A Weary Song to a Slow Sad Tune” Search. Search. Seek. Seek. Cold. Cold. Clear. Clear. Sorrow. Sorrow. Pain. Pain. Hot flashes. Sudden chills. Stabbing pains. Slow agonies. I can find no peace.
You write out my poems, filling monastery walls, and I crowd these door-screens here with yours. Old friend, we never know where it is we’ll meet– we two duckweed leaves adrift on such vast seas….
Chuang-tzu dreams he’s a butterfly, And a butterfly becomes Chuang-tzu. All transformation this one body, Boundless occurrence goes on and on: It’s no surprise eastern seas become Western streams shallow and clear, Or the melon-grower…