There's actually a pretty great translation of Fitzgerald's 'Rubaiyat' by Kerson Huang 黃克孫 that renders the verses as fake classical Chinese poems. My copy of it is one of the things that got lost when I moved back to the States years ago, sadly, but I still remember his rendering of "For Is and Is-Not though with rule and line..." as "是非本在有無中," which I just find delightful for some reason.
Genuinely inspiring. No idea as to the quality of his I Ching translation -- the 易經 is one of those texts that I don't think anyone has ever actually understood -- but who knows, maybe a theoretical physicist would have a better shot.
Astronomers: do we mean nothing to you?
Fair, fair -- though personally I don't concern myself with anything above the Kármán Line; saves a lot of time that way.
You can’t tell me poets don’t have something special to say about the moon and stars. “Music of the spheres” and all that.
Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.
There's actually a pretty great translation of Fitzgerald's 'Rubaiyat' by Kerson Huang 黃克孫 that renders the verses as fake classical Chinese poems. My copy of it is one of the things that got lost when I moved back to the States years ago, sadly, but I still remember his rendering of "For Is and Is-Not though with rule and line..." as "是非本在有無中," which I just find delightful for some reason.
I have to say I’m impressed that a search for his books comes up half things like “Quarks, Leptons, and Gauge Theory” and half “I Ching”.
Genuinely inspiring. No idea as to the quality of his I Ching translation -- the 易經 is one of those texts that I don't think anyone has ever actually understood -- but who knows, maybe a theoretical physicist would have a better shot.