These poems are translated by Robert Payne in collaboration with Chinese scholars. I love the third poem, probably the only hangover poem I know! Drinking Alone Under Moonlight Holding a jug of wine among the flowers, And drinking alone, not a soul keeping me company, I raise my cup and invite the moon to drink with me, And together with my shadow we are three. But the moon does not know the joy of drinking, And my shadow only follows me about. Nevertheless I shall have them as my companions, For one should enjoy life at such a time. The moon loiters as I sing my songs, My shadow looks confused as I dance. I drink with them when I am awake And part with them when I am drunk. Henceforward may we always be feasting, And may we meet in the Cloudy River of Heaven. *Cloudy River of Heaven - milky way Drinking Alone in Moonlight If Heaven had no love for wine, There would be no Wine Star in Heaven; If earth had no love for wine, There would be...
What is this?
ReplyDeleteAn experiment.
I’m not sure if it is even repeatable, I decided to take some fairly bland pop music lyrics – the sort that are the background to all our lives. They play constantly everywhere. You probably know them off by heart even though they might have been written in five minutes on the back of a cigarette packet.
What if you take those lyrics, add a surreal dimension, a dream dimension, a stream of consciousness dimension and re-write them. I found it enjoyable.
At first I just printed off lyrics and re-wrote. Then it all got mixed up with different verses and verses being mixed in. Reading it back, I can tell where number 1 came from but the rest? Their origin is lost in history.