Wouldn't it be great if you couldn't sleep at night and looked at the window and there was a delightful Moon soaked fog creating an elegant night sky. And then you could walk over at 2:00 in the morning to your neighbor and tell them to come outside and look at it with you. In Arizona, your neighbor would likely shoot you. This is great stuff.
Lovely rendition! I would say this is a xiaopin before they started calling them that —I wonder if it’s in the late Ming collection 《東坡小品》, reportedly the first collection to use the term to refer to leisure writing with that term (afaik). Did he really “undress,” because I don’t see where he says he “got dressed again”? Maybe he was streaking? Or maybe he just loosened his clothes, like we loosen our ties at the bar after work?
There's a real quantity-is-its-own-quality feature to this anecdote. The translation is great, but it's still too long, you know? The small moment, captured in a few careless characters that match the... lightness? serendipity? ephemerality? of the event is so gorgeous.
Do do that famous ci - I find all published versions of it to be nonsensical, and I'll be interested to see how you interpret it!
Wouldn't it be great if you couldn't sleep at night and looked at the window and there was a delightful Moon soaked fog creating an elegant night sky. And then you could walk over at 2:00 in the morning to your neighbor and tell them to come outside and look at it with you. In Arizona, your neighbor would likely shoot you. This is great stuff.
Perfectly timed for my freshman seminar on Su Shi. Curious about your decision to make the last lines statements rather than questions.
Lovely rendition! I would say this is a xiaopin before they started calling them that —I wonder if it’s in the late Ming collection 《東坡小品》, reportedly the first collection to use the term to refer to leisure writing with that term (afaik). Did he really “undress,” because I don’t see where he says he “got dressed again”? Maybe he was streaking? Or maybe he just loosened his clothes, like we loosen our ties at the bar after work?
Lovely. Thanks, as always!
There's a real quantity-is-its-own-quality feature to this anecdote. The translation is great, but it's still too long, you know? The small moment, captured in a few careless characters that match the... lightness? serendipity? ephemerality? of the event is so gorgeous.
Do do that famous ci - I find all published versions of it to be nonsensical, and I'll be interested to see how you interpret it!