Stone House
At the center of it
A man sits believing
The walled-in truth
Admiring the seamless
Structure of his own
Handy work, debating
Where the window
should be, to which
direction?
Thick and sturdy
The stone house sits
In the middle of
The universe
With the man walled-in
Separated from what
He has forgotten
To enclose: truth
In the invisible
The incomprehensible
The mere size of
The intangible
Lonely man
Feeling defeated
Grows ambitious
And stubborn
To make his mark
Among rocks and grass
He decides to build
A bigger house
In the middle of
The universe
:2/23/05 [found in dream]
foto: by "warmbrain"
影云2005-02-24 18:49:52回复悄悄话
True, true, true - - - those are so called caged minds: )
LTG2005-02-24 16:50:48回复悄悄话
yesssss, that's what i try to express in terms of our "smallness" vs. the universe, which is too "big" to comprehend ...
humans are always preoccupied with one's own "wealth", "property", etc...say, some rich person has a mnasion, or a billion dollars, for example, what does that mean if we step a little further back [or ahead]??
there is this "un-balance" in reality, as always ... and poetry is to provide some kind of "balance" in our consciousness so that we can see what's real and what's not...
thanks for sharing!!
影云2005-02-24 15:01:16回复悄悄话
I can understand it, but find hard to put it into Chinese - - - to me, the English version is natural and smoother - - - when translating it, I have a similar feeling as the man in the poem has, “being defeated” : )
This poem reminds me of an old Chinese saying, “Tang Lang Dang Che”(?). But on the other hand, without “against”, we never know how weak or strong and tiny or huge we are - - - life is a process for man to explore himself and we hardly know where it ends - - - a line I read long time ago is , “life is like a circle. The bigger the circle, the more unknown exposed.” ( similar )
LTG2005-02-23 16:28:54回复悄悄话
yeah, very interesting dream ... lines already written when dreaming...unfortunately, some words are forgotten after waking up...
humans are always preoccupied with one's own "wealth", "property", etc...say, some rich person has a mnasion, or a billion dollars, for example, what does that mean if we step a little further back [or ahead]??
there is this "un-balance" in reality, as always ... and poetry is to provide some kind of "balance" in our consciousness so that we can see what's real and what's not...
thanks for sharing!!
This poem reminds me of an old Chinese saying, “Tang Lang Dang Che”(?). But on the other hand, without “against”, we never know how weak or strong and tiny or huge we are - - - life is a process for man to explore himself and we hardly know where it ends - - - a line I read long time ago is , “life is like a circle. The bigger the circle, the more unknown exposed.” ( similar )
just a thought:)
2nd stanza means that "the man cannot --- it's impossible --- to include all that the universe has..."
:)
石屋
屋的正中
面壁的人相信
围住的真理
爱恋自己手工活
无缝的构造,思考
窗应该开在哪里
朝哪个方向?
厚而结实的石屋
位於宇宙之央
人圈于其中
远离忘记附带的
真理:无形
不可理喻
无法触及
寂寞的人
心升挫意
更加野心勃勃
坚持不懈
为了留迹于岩石草林
他决计在宇宙之央
修筑更大的屋
感觉翻译的第二段没有很准确
UNIVERSE以柔克MAN的刚 :)