Chinese Women’s Poetry

First in a series

My concepts and prejudices about the East have been plenty.  My year in South Korea banished a lot of that.  Recently, I came across a remarkable collection of poetry by contemporary Chinese women.  These poems had been gathered in the early 90s and translated soon after.  I would have expected poems political, some for and some against the regime.  Julia C. Lin, the American-Chinese academic who translated most of the poems, had worked quite openly with authorities in China, making this venture possible.  I am sure that she might have come across some dissenting poems, but for the sake of the anthology kept them from the light. 

The poems are accomplished, sensuous, sharply observed with poignant humanity.  There are deeply personal poems and many poems celebrate nature.  I find the subjects reminding me of Japanese Haiku, but none ventures into that genre.  I have read Chinese poems from the earlier centuries and this brought me an awareness of the millennia of poetry writing that inform these contemporary words.  

I am an apple

I am an apple.

A small bright red apple.

My smile swings on a child’s face,

My sweetness flows into an old man’s heart,

I satisfy the hunger of a sailor on a long voyage,

I quench the thirst of a traveller in the desert,

I restore the health of a patient who has lost faith,

I give the healthy a more delightful life.

I am an apple.

A small bright red apple.

I am the daughter of the sun and the earth,

I am the chorus of the flowers and leaves,

I am the moon and stars that can be plucked,

I am the pearls and shells than can be picked up,

I am the hardened sweat, the frozen dew,

I am the fire of hope and passion.

I am an apple.

A small bright red apple. 

•  Fu Tianlin  (1946 –    )

©  Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Bridgewater, Somerset West

March, 2023 

Source

Julia C. Lin:  Women of the Red Plain   An anthology of Contemporary Chinese women’s poetry.  Penguin books. 1991.

 Longing

Hide away from longing,

Throw on a fur wrap and

    Walk out of a quiet lamp-bright house.

Bright moon peeps out on a small path.

A bare branch

    Inscribes its longing

        All over the snow-whitened ground

“Bad to the bone”

This song, released in 1982 by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, is classic blues rock, taking its roots in the music of Muddy Waters.  For me it is a good example of the ironic nature of the blues.  The blues has been the lamentation of the loner, often careering into self-pity (“Why am I treated so bad?”).  In “Bad to the Bone” we see the ruthless and unrepentant cry of the “bad man”, with only one thing saving him – his ability to love his girl exclusively.  His badness takes on epic proportions –  When I walk kings and queens / step aside.  And we see the irony in it all in Thorogood’s name.  And we smile.  As some people don’t smile and are part of a long tradition of condemning rock music and even some pop as being evil.  Ah, these humourless literalists … It takes all types …

© Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Bridgewater, Somerset West

April, 2023

See You Tube:  George Thorogood: Bad to the Bone. 

My graphic.

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Ruby

The song “Ruby” by Mel Tellis was sung by Kenny Rogers, amongst others, and became a hit in 1969.  That it was released at the time of the Vietnam war made people feel that it was an anti-war protest song.  This is supported by the line “that old crazy Asian war”.  Tellis, rather strangely, says that he wrote it about the Second World War.  We take the point that it applies to any war.  For me, it was one of the profound lyrics and the pain in these words, so ably crafted, reaches its height in the final line, spoken rather than sung, by Kenny Rogers. 

Ruby

You’ve painted up your lips
And rolled and curled your tinted hair

Ruby, are you contemplating
Going out somewhere

The shadow on the wall
Tells me the sun is going down

Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town

It wasn’t me that started
That old crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go
And do my patriotic chore

And yes, it’s true that
I’m not the man I used to be

Oh, Ruby, I still need some company

It’s hard to love a man whose
Legs are bent and paralyzed

And the wants and the needs of
A woman your age, Ruby, I realize

But it won’t be long
I’ve heard them say until I’m not around

Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town

She’s leaving now ’cause I just

Heard the slamming of the door

The way I know I’ve heard it
Slam one hundred times before

And if I could move, I’d get my gun
And put her in the ground

Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town

Oh, Ruby, for God’s sake, turn around

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Bridgewater, Somerset West

April, 2023

My graphic.

Picasso and Africa

It has been some time since I attended the “Picasso in Africa” exhibition in Cape Town.  It was a revelation and a special experience.  From that time I’ve been searching his paintings and drawings for the African influence.  Interesting that he himself downplayed the influence, probably because acknowledging influence takes a touch of humility and he wasn’t strong on that.  Here are two images.  The drawing was done by Picasso in 1907, prior to the groundbreaking Les Demoiselles d’Avignon later in 1907.  The sculpture comes from Benin.  It is probably 19^th-century. 

© Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Bridgewater, Somerset West

April, 2023

Source

Drawing:  Frank Elgar:  Picasso.  Thames and Hudson. 1956.

Sculpture:  source lost.

Southern Cape: moments

Leaving the Western Cape, travelling over Sir Lowry’s Pass, I find a different world. The beauty is less dramatic than the Boland. I share images that have been moments of quiet splendour.

The canola plants sport a bright yellow and this image was taken before that yellow dominates.

Prehistoric fish traps at Stilbaai

(c) Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Bridgewater, Somerset West

April, 2023 (2)

My images, published by RotsWolk Publishers