I have seen a road that wanders in green shade, that runs through sweet fields of flowers. My eyes have traveled there, and journeyed far along that cool fine road.But I will never really walk that road; it does not really lead to where she lives.
When she was born, they bound her little feet with leather bands; my beloved never walks the road of shade and flowers.
When she was born, they bound her little heart with leather bands; my beloved never listens to my song. ~Anonymous (cited: Various Authors, The Jade Flute Chinese Poems in Prose. The Project Gutenberg
Looking backward ... I cannot see the ancients of days.
Looking forward ... I cannot see ages yet to come.
Only heaven and earth have remained,
And will remain forever ...
I am alone, I grieve, I drop tears into the dust ~Chen Tzu-ang
Snow has fallen And you cannot have Even the unusual sight of men Along the precipitous path of the Peak of Yoshino. ~The Sarashina Diary (Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)
Glazed silk, newly cut, smooth, glittering, white,
As white, as clear, even as frost and snow.
Perfectly fashioned into a fan,
Round, round, like the brilliant moon,
Treasured in my Lord's sleeve, taken out, put in—
Wave it, shake it, and a little wind flies from it.
How often I fear the Autumn Season's coming
And the fierce, cold wind which scatters the blazing heat.
Discarded, passed by, laid in a box alone;
Such a little time, and the thing of love cast off.
~Pan Chieh-Yü*
fan…Nikon D750 f5.6 1.60s 300mm 100 ISO
*cited: Trans: Florence Ayscough & Any Lowell The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fir-Flower Tablets
The grass does not refuse
To flourish in the spring wind;
The leaves are not angry
At falling through the autumn sky.
Who with whip or spur
Can urge the feet of Time?
The things of the world flourish and decay,
Each at its own hour. ~LiPo
Trans: Arthur Waley, The Poet Li Po II. 26. The Sun Gutenberg.org
Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/80s 150mm 100 ISO
“The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflections on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep crease scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.” ~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
On and on, always on and onAway from you, parted by a life-parting. Going from one another ten thousand “li,”Each in a different corner of the World.The way between is difficult and long,Face to face how shall we meet again?The Tartar horse prefers the North wind,The bird from Yüeh nests on the Southern branch.Since we parted the time is already long,Daily my clothes hang looser round my waist.Floating clouds obscure the white sun,The wandering one has quite forgotten home.Thinking of you has made me suddenly old,The months and years swiftly draw to their close.I’ll put you out of my mind and forget for everAnd try with all my might to eat and thrive.*
*cited: Trans: Arthur Waley, Project Gutenberg A Hundred and Seventy Poems. Note: The above poem is from a series known as the Nineteen Pieces of Old Poetry. Some have been attributed to Mei Shēng (first century b.c.), and one to Fu I (first century a.d.).
“…is it the wish—the dreamlike, bombastic wish—to stand once again at that point in my life and be able to take a completely different direction than the one that has made me who I am now?
“There is something peculiar about this wish, it smacks of paradox and logical peculiarity. Because the one who wishes it—isn’t the one who, still untouched by the future, stands at the crossroads. Instead, it is, the one marked by the future become past who wants to go back to the past, to revoke the irrevocable. And would he want to revoke it if he hadn’t suffered it. …it’s the absurd wish to go back behind myself in time and take myself—the one marked by events—along on this journey.” ~P Mercier (Night Train to Lisbon, pp. 51-54)
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” ~ Heraclitus
When my heart came to rule in the world of love, it was freed from both belief and from disbelief.
On this journey, I found the problem to be myself.
When I went beyond myself, the pathway finally opened. ~Mahsati Ganjavi
a meditative journey 
You must be logged in to post a comment.