>>2008009Who's your favourite? I like Du Fu but my taiwanese thesis supervisor reckons none of the translations come close to the original.
My fav chinese nature poem is this one by Tao Qian, last line sums up a lot of my feelings about the /out/doors. I like that he was an alcoholic NEET from 16 centuries ago too
I made my home amidst this human bustle,
Yet I hear no clamour from the carts and horses.
My friend, you ask me how this can be so?
A distant heart will tend towards like places.
From the eastern hedge, I pluck chrysanthemum flowers,
And idly look towards the southern hills.
The mountain air is beautiful day and night,
The birds fly back to roost with one another.
I know that this must have some deeper meaning,
I try to explain, but cannot find the words.
My sister got me a book of early arabic poetry which is pretty /out/ too. I think the bedouins who wrote a lot of it were very superficially islamized at that point so heaps of it is about the beauty of the desert, sneaking into enemy tent camps to fuck women and getting blind drunk with friends
