I'd rather be the dust of the road
And trampled on by the feet of the poor...
I'd rather be the rivers that flow
And have washerwoman along my shore...
I'd rather be the poplars next to the river
With only sky above and the water below...
I'd rather be the miller's donkey
And have him beat me and care for me...
Rather this than to go through life
Always looking back and feeling regret...
Poet: Alberto Caeiro (Just another heteronym of Fernando Pessoa)
Translator: Richard Zenith
From The Keeper of Sheep,
ALBERTO CAIRO: THE UNWITTING MASTER,
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Commendable modernist poetry 1
I'm Sorry I Don't Respond
I'm sorry I don't respond
But it isn't, after all, my fault
That I don't correspond
To the other you loved in me.
Each of us in many persons
To me I'm who I think I am,
But others see me differently
And are equally mistaken.
Don't dream me into someone else
But leave me alone, in peace!
If I don't want to find myself,
Should I want others to find me?
-26 January 1930
Poet: Fernando Pessoa
Translator: Richard Zenith
From Fernando Pessoa - Himself, THE MASK BEHIND THE MAN
I'm sorry I don't respond
But it isn't, after all, my fault
That I don't correspond
To the other you loved in me.
Each of us in many persons
To me I'm who I think I am,
But others see me differently
And are equally mistaken.
Don't dream me into someone else
But leave me alone, in peace!
If I don't want to find myself,
Should I want others to find me?
-26 January 1930
Poet: Fernando Pessoa
Translator: Richard Zenith
From Fernando Pessoa - Himself, THE MASK BEHIND THE MAN
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
And the one thing that cheered me up on this lousy day...
Looking forward to the upcoming Universal Studios Themepark in Singapore!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Something Other
W: One of the things I like about being with you is that I don’t feel obliged to talk all the time. It’s easy to be silent with you. Being silent with you, close but not touching, eyes closed, not communicating with any of the five senses, just knowing you’re there, feeling you’re there, something else takes over, difficult to put into words because words belong to the five senses and this is something else. Something other. An awareness. It’s hard to describe it. A feeling that you are somewhere inside me, I am somewhere inside you. Outside the senses, beyond time and space, outside ourselves. I can’t put it into words. But it’s there. Do you feel that?
M: Hm?
W: Do you feel that.
M: I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.
-James Saunders, After Liverpool
M: Hm?
W: Do you feel that.
M: I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.
-James Saunders, After Liverpool
