Friday, August 26, 2011

Poems From 10 Years Back - II

Quiet Night Thoughts
        -Li Po

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.

Untitled
        -Hafiz
I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

What is God?

If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,
If you think that the Sun and the Ocean

Can pass through that tiny opening
Called a mouth,
O someone should start laughing!

Someone should start wildly Laughing --
Now!

III
        -Neruda, from the Book of Questions
Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

That last question, I just realized, is satisfactorily answered here.

3 comments:

that man keynes waxes nostalgic said...

leper,

what a long time ago, dude. and what a lifetime ago, FVT and all..

In keeping with this, I found the following quote from JMK which just precedes another famous one. One must simply do slish adjustment, but appropriate for other cases

"That happy age lost sight of a view of the world which filled with deep-seated melancholy the founders of our Political Economy. Before the eighteenth century mankind entertained no false hopes. To lay the illusions which grew popular at that age's latter end, Malthus disclosed a Devil. For half a century all serious economical writings held that Devil in clear prospect. For the next half century he was chained up and out of sight. Now perhaps we have loosed him again."

Ludwig said...

[fuckface] Yes, yes. Those ones only. JMK is God. Actually, LW is God, as JMK himself admitted, but at least JMD is the Profit.

xyz said...

All three are very beautiful. Thx for sharing :)