The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko- `211 We Cannot Trust In Anything; It is Rare: Sincere
by Maven Huggins on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:04am
We cannot trust in anything. The foolish man places great trust in things, and this sometimes leads to bitterness and anger.
If you have power, do not trust in it; powerful men are the first to fall. You may have many possessions, but they are not to be depended on; they are easily lost in a moment. Nor should you trust in your learning if you have any; even Confucius was not favored by his times. You may have virtue, but you must not rely on it; even Yen Hui was unlucky (A virtuous pupil of Confucius who died young). Do not trust in the favor of your lord; his punishment may strike before you know it. You cannot depend on your servants either; they will disobey you and run away. Nor should you trust in another person's kind feelings; they will certainly change. Do not rely on promises; it is rare for people to be sincere.
If you trust neither in yourself nor in others, you will rejoice when things go well, but bear no resentment when they go badly. You will then have room on either side to expand, and not be constrained. With nothing too close before or behind you, you will not be blocked. When the activity of the mind is constricted and rigid, a man will come into collision with things at every turn and be harmed by disputes. If you have space for maneuvering and are flexible, not one hair will be harmed.
Man is the most miraculous of creatures within heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are boundless. Why should man's nature be dissimilar? When it is generous and unconstrained, joy and anger cannot hamper it, and it remains unaffected by externals.
If you have power, do not trust in it; powerful men are the first to fall. You may have many possessions, but they are not to be depended on; they are easily lost in a moment. Nor should you trust in your learning if you have any; even Confucius was not favored by his times. You may have virtue, but you must not rely on it; even Yen Hui was unlucky (A virtuous pupil of Confucius who died young). Do not trust in the favor of your lord; his punishment may strike before you know it. You cannot depend on your servants either; they will disobey you and run away. Nor should you trust in another person's kind feelings; they will certainly change. Do not rely on promises; it is rare for people to be sincere.
If you trust neither in yourself nor in others, you will rejoice when things go well, but bear no resentment when they go badly. You will then have room on either side to expand, and not be constrained. With nothing too close before or behind you, you will not be blocked. When the activity of the mind is constricted and rigid, a man will come into collision with things at every turn and be harmed by disputes. If you have space for maneuvering and are flexible, not one hair will be harmed.
Man is the most miraculous of creatures within heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are boundless. Why should man's nature be dissimilar? When it is generous and unconstrained, joy and anger cannot hamper it, and it remains unaffected by externals.
----------------------------
Borges DreamTIGERS, Part One, In Passages
by Maven Huggins on Monday, August 10, 2009 at 2:05pm
"How it grieves me to see such an honorable warrior struck down by the arms of treachery!
"Rosas, you never did understand me. And how could you, when our destines were so different?"
"Your lot was to comman in a city that looks toward Europe and will someday be among the most famous in the world. Mine was to wage war in America's lonely spots, on poor earth belonging to poor gauchos. My empire was made of lances and shouts and sand pits and lamost secreat victories in obscure places. What claims are those to fame?"
"Then the revelation occurred: Marino saw the rose as Adam might have seen it in Paradise, and he thought that the rose was to be found in its own eternity and not in his words; and that we may mention or allude to a thing, but not express it; and that the tall, proud volumes casting a golden shadow in a corner were not -- as his vanity had dreamed-- a mirror of the world, but rather one thing more added to the world."
"Who knows but that tonight we may see it in the labyrinth of dreams, and tomorrow not know we saw it."
"Tradition has it that, on waking, he felt he had been given--and then had lost--something infinite, something he would not be able to recover, or even to glimpse, for the machinery of the world is far too complex for the simplicity of men."
Jorge Luis Borges
Dreamtigers, 1964
"Rosas, you never did understand me. And how could you, when our destines were so different?"
"Your lot was to comman in a city that looks toward Europe and will someday be among the most famous in the world. Mine was to wage war in America's lonely spots, on poor earth belonging to poor gauchos. My empire was made of lances and shouts and sand pits and lamost secreat victories in obscure places. What claims are those to fame?"
"Then the revelation occurred: Marino saw the rose as Adam might have seen it in Paradise, and he thought that the rose was to be found in its own eternity and not in his words; and that we may mention or allude to a thing, but not express it; and that the tall, proud volumes casting a golden shadow in a corner were not -- as his vanity had dreamed-- a mirror of the world, but rather one thing more added to the world."
"Who knows but that tonight we may see it in the labyrinth of dreams, and tomorrow not know we saw it."
"Tradition has it that, on waking, he felt he had been given--and then had lost--something infinite, something he would not be able to recover, or even to glimpse, for the machinery of the world is far too complex for the simplicity of men."
Jorge Luis Borges
Dreamtigers, 1964
----------------------
Bien Pretty, Woman Hollering Creek
by Maven Huggins on Monday, August 3, 2009 at 10:22am
"God made men by baking them in an oven, but he forgot about the first batch, and that's how Black people were born.
And then he was so anxious about the next batch, he took them out of the oven too soon, so that's how White people were made.
But the third batch he let cook until they were golden-golden-golden, and honey, that's you and me.
God made you from red clay, Flavio, with his hands. This face of yours like the little clay heads they unearth in Teotihuaca'n. Pinched this cheekbone, then that. Used obsidian flints for the eyes, those eyes dark as the sacrificial wells they cast virgins into. Selected hair thick as whiskers. Thought for a long time before deciding on thisnose, elegant and wide. And the mouth, ah! Everything silent and powerful and very proud kneaded into the mouth. And then he blessed you, Flavio, with skin sweet as burnt-milk candy, smooth as river water. He made you bien pretty even if I didn't always know it. Yes he did."
Sandra Cisneros
And then he was so anxious about the next batch, he took them out of the oven too soon, so that's how White people were made.
But the third batch he let cook until they were golden-golden-golden, and honey, that's you and me.
God made you from red clay, Flavio, with his hands. This face of yours like the little clay heads they unearth in Teotihuaca'n. Pinched this cheekbone, then that. Used obsidian flints for the eyes, those eyes dark as the sacrificial wells they cast virgins into. Selected hair thick as whiskers. Thought for a long time before deciding on thisnose, elegant and wide. And the mouth, ah! Everything silent and powerful and very proud kneaded into the mouth. And then he blessed you, Flavio, with skin sweet as burnt-milk candy, smooth as river water. He made you bien pretty even if I didn't always know it. Yes he did."
Sandra Cisneros
----------------------
Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek, Little Miracles, Kept Promises, pg 117-118:
by Maven Huggins on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 10:20pm
INDIgroove
Raising Men, Raising Women...
Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek, Little Miracles, Kept Promises, pg 117-118:
"Dear San Antonio de Padua,
Can you send me a man man. I mean someone who's not ashamed to be seen cooking or cleaning or looking after himself. In other words, a man who acts like an adult. Not one who's never lived alone, never bought his own underwear, never ironed his own shirts, never even heated his own tortillas. In other words, don't send me someone like my brothers who my mother ruined with too much chichi, or I'll throw him back.
I'll turn your statue upside down until you send him to me. I've put up with too much too long, and now, I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything else.
Ms. Barbara Yban~ez, San Antonio, TX"
Raising Men, Raising Women...
Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek, Little Miracles, Kept Promises, pg 117-118:
"Dear San Antonio de Padua,
Can you send me a man man. I mean someone who's not ashamed to be seen cooking or cleaning or looking after himself. In other words, a man who acts like an adult. Not one who's never lived alone, never bought his own underwear, never ironed his own shirts, never even heated his own tortillas. In other words, don't send me someone like my brothers who my mother ruined with too much chichi, or I'll throw him back.
I'll turn your statue upside down until you send him to me. I've put up with too much too long, and now, I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything else.
Ms. Barbara Yban~ez, San Antonio, TX"
-------------------
The PostColonial and the Global, Krishnaswamy and Hawley
by Maven Huggins on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 12:04pm
Sons of Fidel, Champions of the Poor and Dispossessed; Siblings of Socialist Movements and those who have not yet forgotten their pasts as they have launched into leadership, the Leftists: Chavez, the revolutionary, Evo, the Indian, Lula, the laborer, Ortega, the guerilla, Correa, a Mestizo, Humala a nationalist Caudillo, Preval, bakery owner, and Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith. Sister Senora Bachelet
Postcolonial in Latin America and Iran is certainly not postcolonial in the Caribbean Context;
Read, Consider and Discuss
Postcolonial in Latin America and Iran is certainly not postcolonial in the Caribbean Context;
Read, Consider and Discuss
--------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment