From Neil, a truly special friend: SEEING OFF A FRIEND Green mountains Lie across the northern outskirts Of the city. White water Winds around the eastern City wall. Once we make our parting Here in this place, Like a solitary tumbleweed You will go Ten thousand miles. Floating clouds Are the thoughts of the wanderer. Setting sun Is the mood of his old friend. With a wave of the hand Now you go from here. Your horse gives a whinny As it departs. Li Bai Tang Dynasty Approx. 750 AD ****************** POEM River blue-- The birds seem whiter. Mountains green-- Flowers about to flame. Spring, I see Has passed again. What year will it be When I go home? Tu Fu Tang Dynasty Approx. 764 AD

TRAVELLING AT NIGHT Slender grasses, A breeze on the riverbank, The tall mast Of my boat alone in the night. Stars hang All across a vast plain. The moon leaps In the Great River's flow. My writing Has not made a name for me, And now, due to age and illness, I must quit my official post. Floating on the wind, What do I resemble? A solitary gull Between the heavens and the earth. Tu Fu Tang Dynasty 765 AD.

"Night Rain" An early cricket chirps And then is silent. The dying lamp goes out, Then flares again. Outside the window I know there is rain In the night. From banana leaves First comes the sound. Bai Jyu-Yi Tang Dynasty Approx. 800 AD *********** QUIET NIGHT THOUGHTS Before my bed there is bright moonlight So that it seems like frost on the ground: Lifting my head I watch the bright moon, Lowering my head I dream that I'm home. --Li Po *************** AN INVITATION TO MY FRIEND LYOU "Green Ant" New wine. Red Clay Little warming-stove. It is late And about to snow. Could you drink A cup with me? Bai Jyu-Yi Tang Dynasty 817 AD.

Thanks, Wolfie, for this topic. What lovely poetic imagry it is! I am trying to get Neil to come and check it out... Perhcance to post, even...!

Until he chooses to post himself, here is my evening's measure of grace and beauty... from Neil.... *Big Hugs* MARBLE STAIRS GRIEVANCE On Marble Stairs still grows the night dew That has all night soaked her silk slippers, But she lets down her crystal blind now And sees through glaze the moon of autumn Li Po

Great topic!!! I have a question on Li Po: Was it he how drown in a canal while trying to contemplate the reflection of the moon while he was drunk? Or is that another factoid?

I have just summoned Neil to answer a most interesting question. He is more than just fascinating, he is also funny and eloquent by turns. Please, dear... Field this question for Cheryl, please?!

Hello Cheryl (my sister's name too!) and to everyone else here. To answer your question on Li Po, I'll refer you to some interesting, and perhaps revealing quotes about the man from the introduction of the Penguin Classics book, "Li Po and Tu Fu", translated by Arthur Cooper... "Li Po was not merely un-Confucian in his manners, enjoying or hiding himself in a reputation as an enfant terrible, but often explicitly anti-Confucian in thought. He poured scorn on the moral and intellectual qualities (such as patient literary scholarship) most admired in the Confucian tradition, and expressed his own admiration only for the man of impulse. For a time in his youth he lived as a wandering gallant, whose sword was free to redress wrongs wherever he went." "...he is said by contemporaries to have killed several men." "Contemporary descriptions of Li Po speak of his great, flashing eyes and loud, shrill voice. his presence seems to have electrified everyone and the speed at which he composed, when in drink, to have astonished them." "The well known legend of his death, in 762, is that he fell drunk from a boat while trying to grasp the reflection of the moon, and was drowned. It might even be true, particularly as death from pneumonia seems to have been described as 'drowning'." So, while the truth to the legend isn't clear, has cavalier and swashbuckling attitude towards certainly life seems to lend some creedence to it! Thanks for the kind words, Marcia!

E KOMO MAI, NEIL Pikake & Ti-Leaf White fragrant 3-Strand Pikake flower leis twined together with a traditional Ti-leaf lei. See? Told ya I have to do some stuff twice to get it right!)

In Hawaii, the traditional way is to place the Lei over your head and to kiss you lightly on the cheek. Consider yourself Lei'd, my dear!

Yow! Wut-a-group... (blush....grin...) Mike aka cosmo (who once in a while wanders out of his Dostoevsky-ian basement hovel to see whats going on in the rest of the world and realizing that yes, there is a 'rest of the world' out there)

Whee! Mike does get out of the ionized air on onccasion. Welcome!

this is great stuff! thanks mike and neil for gracing this little corner of spring!

He sent me one today for my eyes alone. It beats the others all hollow. However, this is one time I will not share. It is engraved inside of me where none others exist. Amazing, Wolfie, who is seemingly pragmatic and is found to have a poetic side to them. I am delighted to see men back in on the creative process. Without them, our love is gone, our hearts empty and needfull

Happy Birthday Neil Found you an original edition of Li Po for your collection

If you are reading this today you better not tell anyone; it is supposed to be a surprise for him and his time zone is 5 hours ahead of mine. *sigh*

Now, for a safe place to keep those first edition treasures I have been amassing for you...the ultimate Happy Birthday for any bibliophile: The Library of Alexandria

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEIL!!!

Oh wow! The Mother of all Libraries1 You may never be able to pull me out of there! Thank, my dearest Marcia! And Hi Wolfie! Thanks!

And I am chief Librarian. You did not think I would not supply my services to assist you, did you?! I hope the whole Library is in the afterlife I inhabit! Again, Happy Birthday and welcome to Spring!

Oh, and *hugs and kisses*

After a happy accident today in finding my copy of "The Selected poems of Tu Fu" which I thought I'd lost, and with Marcia warmly opening the door here for me, and Wolfie graciously wlcoming me in, I'd like to post the following: THE NEW MOON Slice of ascending light, arc tipped Aside it's bellied darkness--the new moon Appears and, scarcely risen beyond ancient Frontiers, edges behind clouds. Silver, Changeless--Heaven's River spreads across Empty peaks scoured with cold. White Dew dusts the courtyard, chrysanthemum Blossoms clotting there with swollen dark.

Wonderfully evocative. What a delightful surprise to see you posting from that precious book of yours. Now that you have the original in your big new library, it is at your command. Your Librarian awaits your summons.

that's a nice piece, neil! please post at will!!! (hi marcia *hugs*)

Hi Sweetie, I'm on MSN is you want to talk.

just sent an email your way....

MMMMMM..Yes, got it. Definitely chicken-skin stuff there!

Hello Neil and Happy Birthday! Okay, I'm late still I hope it was a happy one. Many thanks for the biographical information on Li Po. What little I've read of his poetry is beautiful. Let me clarify, I've only read him in translation. I can neither read or write Chinese. However, I do know that Chinese, like English, is an isolating language. Meaning it does not depend on masculine and feminine forms of words. The great, lost Library of Alexandria. I think I read somewhere that the Great Library was actuallya complex which in fact contained not one, but two libraries. There was the older Mother Library (smaller) and the newer Daughter Library (larger), as well as the Temple of the Muses, known as the Museum.

Thank, Cheryl, about that complex of all complexes. Hmmm... decisions decisions. I'd never leave the precincts unless I needed a dormitorium or a consumium. One must occasionally eat and sleep, alas!! Can't quite figure why that one interpretation has onion-domes - I thought they were the favorites of the very guys who torched the place! (I had no choice of structures...it was the only representation which Corbis offered.)

Hi Cheryl; I'd forgotten that the Great Library was subdivided, thanks. I, too, have to rely on English translations of the poetry (just yesterday I happily came across my copy of "The Selected Poems of Tu Fu", translated by David Hinton, which I thought I'd lost) as I don't speak Chinese (I know a small--the operative term here being SMALL--smattering of Russian, German, and even less of Japanese), but I have some appreciation for it's complexity and sophistication as a language. I once knew a Chinese student many years ago who demonstrated this by saying, what on first hearing, seemed to be the same word said over and over, but only with differences, sometimes distinct and other times not, in tonality, emphasis, and inflection. What I thought had been the same word actually had several distinctly different meanings and definitions; it was actually quite remarkable. I have to go with Marcia and agree that the onion-domed interpetation of the Library seems somewhat fanciful. One of the best artist's impressions of it I've ever seen (and I think Marcia may agree with me here) was the one produced for the landmark PBS series, "Cosmos", which was produced and hosted by the late, great Carl Sagan (one of my personal heroes) many years ago. It showed very strong Egyptian and Greek influences, and it certainly gave the impression of greatness that such a facility deserved. Take Care, Neil PS. Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone. One year older and hopefully a little wiser!

Intonation of Chinese is an artform best learned in infancy, I think. Some simply cannot hear it at all! Rather like the Japanese being unable to hear the "L" sound. I looked for the Cosmos version of THE Library but came up empty. I'll keep hunting - it IS as I iamgined it. Splendid edifice whose outsides I would seldom see as chief librarian, curator and just plain reveller in the magnificence of the collection. All partakers (excepting for the owner) must wear white gloves at all times - clean ones! No snacking...no mice...no bugs!

For my favourite Librarian,Marcia, and for Wolfie, and Cheryl B., some poetry by Tu Fu; RAIN CLEARS At the edge of heaven, tatters of autumn Cloud. After ten thousand miles of clear Lovely morning, the west wind arrives. Here, Long rains haven't slowed farmers. Frontier Willows air thin kingfisher colours, and Red fruit flecks mountain pears. As a flute's Mongol song drifts from a tower, one Goose climbs clear through vacant skies. LANDSCAPE Clear autumn opens endlessly away. Early shadows deepening, distant Waters empty into flawless sky. A lone city lies lost in fog. Few Enough leaves, and wind scattering More, the sun sets over remote peaks. A lone crane returning....Why so late? Crows already glut woods with night. TWO QUATRAINS 1 Lovely in late sun: mountains, a river, Blossoms and grasses scenting spring wind. Where mud is still soft. swallows fly. On warm sand, ducks doze, two together. 2 Birds are whiter on jade-blue water. Against green mountains, blossoms verge Towards flame. I watch. Spring keeps Passing. How long before I return home?

Why is it every time Neil posts these lovely quatrains (are they?!) I get all squashy inside? Thank you deeply for adding to our appreciation of this art form. If I had the book, the bugs would eat it. As it is now, the words are immmortal and all the world with a computer can see them. We are most grateful! *HUGS*

thank you for posting those--they are lovely indeed!

Neil, many thanks for posting the beautiful poetry of Tu Fu. They are as beautiful as the extraordinary Chinese landscape paintings. The great of age of Chinese painting was the Soong Dynasty, which is sometimes spelled Sung, or Song. An important reginal variant of that school of painting is called Northern Song. Anyway, the poems are as lyrical as the paintings.

Perhaps we can entice the gentleman to post some more of this exquisite poetry, and how nice if we could post a contemporary painting, as well!

I saw a great exhibit of Chinese poetry and philosophy of the 1600s and late 1500s at the Asian Art Museum in SF recently. Very inspiring.

Oooh, LUcky you! With some luck we will get the exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Art which is where all travelling exhibits of that nature go. I have to get Neil to suggest more places to look so we can post more.

I think the SF Asian Art Museum has a website, maybe there are details about this?