"…Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves just floating, floating….refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current; this is what we call the floating world…” Asai Ryoi, in Ukiyo Monogatari (Tales of the Floating World, 1661)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
To One Unnamed - Li Shangyin
You said you would come, but you did not, and you left me with no other trace than the moonlight on your tower at the fifth watch bell. I cry for you forever gone, I cannot waken yet. I try to read your hurried note, I find the ink too pale. Blue burns your candle in its kingfisher-feather lantern and a sweet breath steals from your hibiscus-broidered curtain. But far beyond my reach is the Enchanted Mountain, and you are on the other side, ten thousand peaks away. - Li Shangyin, To One Unnamed
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