Um verso

O vento só move enquanto cede à demora.




K. A. Gulias

Tempo of ripples

Writing about self

sets up a strife.
The judgment of a bird
stilled by one or two riddles:
One green apple and
the other ripen.
Engraving that grounds translation.

Now mature, it asks for continuation.
Listen.

We compare word and time
when we touch water.

Tempo of ripples.

The two apples, two fallen angels.
Two skies mirrored to read you a letter.
To read you a word.
Or to say aw!

My you, my saying
in a single and many words.



by Karinna A. Gulias

Wait - M83

Confucius and Tao

I believe many people translate Confucius erroneously in the West. First because translators from the West tend, as we would expect, to look at the text with Western eyes. Secondly, and as a consequence of the first cause, translators tend to look for metaphysics where there should be none.

As a Taoist and someone in continuous study of Taoism, I have learnt that one thing that we should be aware of at all times is to use the word 'knowledge' as something particularly good, like it is believed to be in the West.

Accumulation in Taoism means loss. Nothing good can come from accumulation of knowledge, because it means to gain something; thus bringing upon you the fear of loss.

As we translators should know, Confucius was a follower of Tao and learnt a lot from the person he admired the most: Lao Tzu - the great master*. However, Confucius did have his limits and I believe he could never accomplish as much as his master did.

The point is, when we face a sentence like the following 致知在格物 -- in the fourth paragraph of Confucius's The Great Learning/The Great Digest -- we should think more than twice before translating anything as 'knowledge'. I don't believe a Taoist like Confucius would see knowledge, as we know, as the way to find sincerity in words. I found a very interesting translation for this sentence in an yahoo forum, as "explore and reckon everything the way it really is" by Metatron

I am currently reading The Great Digest, which is Ezra Pound's translation of Confucius' text. He did not only use the word 'knowledge' again, but also made some other bad choices like, for example, in his: 'sorting things into organic categories'. I don't really know what Pound meant by that and I wonder if he knew it at all. I find strange that someone like Pound, who looked for the true and essential meaning in words, would leave the translation like that without reconsidering it.

Again, I do not think Confucius would say 'to classify things into organic categories', but rather to pierce through the illusions and consider things the way they really are, i.e. their nature. That is the Taoist way of following Tao, by natural wisdom, and not by accumulating knowledge. The latter way, through accumulation, takes us to nihilism, where we basically categorize things like nothingness as bad; the former way, through wisdom, take us to sincerity of heart and openness to seeing things as they are, and to understand nothingness as it is.



Karinna A. Gulias

Footnote:

*“Master, you’ve seen Lao Dan—what estimation would you make of him?” Confucius said, “At last I may say that I have seen a dragon—a dragon that coils to show his body at its best, that sprawls out to display his patterns at their best, riding on the breath of the clouds, feeding on the yin and yang. My mouth fell open and I couldn’t close it; my tongue flew up and I couldn’t even stammer. How could I possibly make any estimation of Lao Dan!” Zhuangzi, Ch. 14

Reading reference:

https://iep.utm.edu/laozi/

References: 

"O Tratado do Vazio Perfeito", Lie Tse - Editora Landy, 2001;

"Tao Te Ching", Lao-Tzu - Translated by Stephen Adiss and Stanley Lombardo / Hackett Publishing, 1993;

"Confucius/The Great Digest/The Unwobbling Pivot/The Analects", Ezra Pound - New Directions Publishings, 1951.

"The I Ching Or Book Of Changes", Richard Wilhelm, 1969 - Foreword by C. G. Jung

Noite de Temporal - Virginia Rodrigues

Mere coincidence?

 Illustration by Pawel Kuczynski (http://pawelkuczynski.com/index.php)

Image from The Man with a Movie Camera, by Dziga Vertov

--The illusive rebellion and hope towards the construction of totalitarian parties. Is history repeating itself?--

Vicente Huidobro

El cementerio de los soldados

La sombra que cae de los árboles
Se ha mojado en el agua
____ No se ve el viento
_______ Pero el bosque metálico
_______ Canta como un órgano

Allí está
_______ La Francia de ayer bajo la hierba
_______ Más bella que una mujer desnuda
La tierra aún tibia
Guarda los últimos secretos
_______ Donde yacen todas las manos cortadas
Una campana tañe
Tras las nubes
_______ Vuelta hacia el océano filial
_______ Llamaba a alguiem

SILENCIO   SILENCIO


Hasta cuando sangrarán la vida

La misma luna herida
No tiene sino una ala
_______ El corazón hizo su nido
_______ En medio del vacio
Sin embargo
__ Al borde del mundo florecen las encinas

Y LA PRIMAVERA VIENE SOBRE LAS GOLONDRINAS


Poems by Vicente Huidobro
 co_______
_______ h

More of Basho

As a brief introduction to the following translation of one of Basho's famous poems "Akebono ya.", I would like to make it clear that it is a transcreation and there is no intention from my part in dealing with language in a conventional way of grasping meaning. Without losing the freedom to play with the words, the translation is focused on the original poem's sound and overall meaning. As a result I created a poem using super-position of images, which I hope can give us another interpretation for Basho's "Akebono ya."


Poem in Japanese (transliterated):

akebono ja
shirauo shiroki
koto issun

Matsuo Basho


Translation:

wake-bone rise

snow-white achovy

one pale inch

Karinna A. Gulias

Brasil... que país é esse?

Carnaval de porcos, escravocratas, mercenários.

Brasil, que país é esse?

Poço de lama, cemitério de baleias extintas. Futuro............ sem mora

Brasil, que país é esse?

Há 500 anos orgulhoso hospedeiro de parasitas. Casa de facções partidárias. Desmitificador de terra e alma.

Brasil, que país é esse?

Igreja universal da ignorância humana. Não da falta de conhecimento, mas da falta de pensamento.



Karinna A. Gulias

Political Propaganda -- The World's Misery

I do not understand. Since when advertising pretty lies about your country to the world became more important than fighting for social equality and better quality of life?

The Brazilian people are politically and rightfully fighting against the World Cup and the Olympic Games. Many are even trying to boycott the World Cup. And to me it is also fair. There are priorities that must be accounted for. Brazil is not in a good position to hold any World Cup YET. The World Cup and the Olympic Games do not bring profit to anyone but the people already in power and investors. 

Why are people from the USA or UK or wherever complaining about the Brazilians for badmouthing their country?

Most of the Brazilians do not give a shit about the world's view of our country. Do you know why? Because they are used to poverty, physical and political violence and corruption making a misery of their lives; Brazilians are used to the first world countries taking advantage of our weaknesses and making profit on them. Thus Brazilians are used to and tired of the manipulating power of the media, the devastating power of politicians, and thus tired of the World's lies and machinery of destruction for the sake of POWER. Many Brazilians do not care about investors because they cannot see one; do not care about Brazil's economic power because they do not have money, a house or a good job; do not care about tourists because their own country do not care about them. We are all tired of political lies and propaganda with no other interest but to attract investments. It is all meaningless to us, as much meaningless as the present world's economic crisis. Brazilians are TIRED...

Julian Bream's "A Musical Journey through Spain" with Master Rodrigo

Away

I'm sorry but due to my MA I'll not be posting in my blog for quite a while.

A little song for today though: