Falling for Poetry

Well, this summer semester I am enrolled in a class on Western Literature:  The Ancient World through the Renaissance.   Of course every semester I try to take a literature, philosophy and history class on top of three computer science classes (or a needed prerequisite class).  Not truly sure of my intent on all these class as I am a B.S. computer science major, aside from ending up with three minors.   I guess my behavior in class selection is due in part to my thoughts that tertiary education should be generalized, not specialized.  Private industry, or your employer should provide the specialized education, or training.  But this discussion will be saved for another post which will go into detail about this opinion.

Anyway, what I want to do in this post is share some works I found interesting in literature class recently.  We were given the assignment to read about fifteen poems each  from three different poets, or cultures, and paraphrase them.  Well, poetry is my least favorite of literature.  So I’m dreading this assignment.  However, once I start working on it, I start to really enjoy the poems.  They are completely different from what I’m use to.  The poets are Lao Tzu, Li Po and several selections of Sanskrit (historical Indo-Aryan language — or present day border territory of India and Iran).  Not going to list all the ones I read, just one from each I like the most.

Lao Tzu, “Be utterly humble”

Be utterly humble
And you shall hold to the foundation of peace.
Be at one with all these living things which, having arisen and flourished,
Return to the quiet whence the came,
Like a healthy growth of vegetation
Falling back upon the root.
Acceptance of this return to the root has been called ‘quietism,’
Acceptance of quietism has been condemned as ‘fatalism.’
But fatalism is acceptance of destiny
And to accept destiny is to face life with open eyes,
Whereas not to accept destiny is to face death blindfold.
He who is open-eyed is open-minded,
He who is open-minded is open-hearted,
He who is open-hearted is kingly,
He who is kingly is godly,
He who is godly is useful,
He who is useful is infinite,
He who is infinite is immune,
He who is immune is immortal.

Li Po, “Drinking Alone under the Moon”

Among the flowers, a jug of win.
Drinking alone, no companion.
Raise the cup, invite bright moon.
And my shadow, that makes three.
The moon knows nothing of drinking.
My shadow merely follows me.
I will go with moon and shadow,
Joyful, till spring end.
I sing, the moon dances.
I dance, my shadow tumbles.
Sober, we share our joy.
Drunk, each goes his way.
Forever bound, to ramble free,
To meet again, in the Milky Way.

Sanskrit poem, “Conquering the whole earth”

Conquering the whole earth
as I have done,
the essence of it is one city,
in that city one house,
in that house only one room,
and even there one bed,
in that bed the woman above all others,
the essence of the kingdom’s happiness,
shining like a jewel.