Ancient Literature in our Modern World

The poem “Spring Prospect” which we discussed in depth during our class had a powerful message with a long lasting impact. The way Du Fu wrote about his experience while he was held captive was descriptive, insightful, and most importantly it allows the reader to really understand the suffering he is going through as time goes on. We are able to really see his struggle with feeling stuck as time goes on and things do change. The impression I had was that he just could not wait for time to pass and for it to all be over.

While reading this poem, the song “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Greenday came to mind. In both the poem and the song, each writer is portraying their desire for time to pass and they show this in very interesting ways. In the poem, we see Du Fu show how time is going on in the lines “Beacon Fires three months in succession”, “White hairs, fewer for the scratching”, and “Feeling times, blossoms draw tears”. In Greenday’s song, the idea of time passing is referenced in the lines “summer has come and passed”, “seven years has come and passed”, and “ring out the bells again, like we did when spring began”. In both writings, we are able to see how each writer is discussing time passing and how they cannot wait for a certain time to come. In the case of Du Fu it is his freedom, and with Greenday, it is when September ends.

Another reason why this poem reminded me of this particular song is due to the underlying theme of both. In Du Fu’s poem, he is discussing the concept of war and how it goes on and on and how he would like it to end. In Greenday’s song, the concept of “September” is referencing to the month when 9/11 occurred and the time that all families are mourning their losses. We see how both have the underlying theme of war ending and how the ending will have a positive impact on their lives.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/greenday/wakemeupwhenseptemberends.html

Music Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9JoFKlaZ0

The initial reaction I got from Li Bo’s, The Traveling the Road is that he is stuck somewhere off seas. He speaks of wanting to be on board and “dreamt of the realm of the sun”, a better place to be than where he is. From the title and the poem, I think he is referring to those moments in our “road” where we get stuck or wind up in places we’d hope we never reached. This reminded me of the song Paralyzed by Rock Kills Kid in which the composer speaks of been “paralyzed” or immobile and “Trapped underneath my own routines” which has him, stuck.

In Li Bo’s poem, he writes:

“I wanted to cross the Yellow River, but it ice blocked the waterway:

Was about to climb the Taihang range, but snow darkened the sky.”

Li Bo is saying that he tried to get out of the place he was in through several paths yet been incapable of. There was something that prevented him from moving along every time he sought a way out thus giving up,

“At my ease I let fall a line, sitting by the side of the stream.”

Likewise in Paralyzed,

“This feels like another dream
Everyone grabbed a hold of me
Pulled from every side of me, I give up
I give up, there’s nothing left of me”

the composer speaks of been held back from everyone and from every direction. It feels like another “dream”, another thought or memory for him which means it’s not the first time it occurs and he is once again detained which leads him to give up because the is nothing more he can do. The composer of this song also repeatedly says he is “paralyzed” and the remedy to this is to snap out of that and notice what he is doing wrong.

“I’m paralyzed, I’m paralyzed
Stuck in the middle and I’m paralyzed
I’m paralyzed, I’m paralyzed
The only way to cope is to realize”

Similarly, Li Bo’s poem says,

“The long wind will smite the waves, and surely will come a time,

To hang straight the cloudy sail and cross the gray-blue sea!”

which to him is his realization that once the winds come in contact with the waves, there is hope to sail off and “cross the gray-blue sea” which is the path to take him out of his immobility and no longer been restrain where he is.

When I read Qiang Village, I felt like the poem was written for me. I relate to it because I feel the same when I go back home to visit my family and friends. This poem talks about Du Fu’s return to home after being captive and the reaction he had from his family and even his neighbors. I believe that the song “Home” by Chris Daughtry reflects better the feeling that this poem has.

 Lofted and lifted, west of the clouds of red,

The trek of the sun descends to the level earth.

By the brushwood gate songbirds ans sparrows chaffer,

And the homebound stranger from a thousand li arrives.

Wife and children marvel that I am here:

When the shock wears off, still they wipe away tears.

In the disorders of the age was I tossed and flung:

That I return alive is a happening of chance.

Neighbors swarm up to the tops of the walls,

Touched and sighing, even they sob and weep.

The night wastes on, and still we hold the candle,

Across from another, as if asleep and in a dream.

The part of the song “Home” that relates more to the poem, because of the happiness and the welcoming feeling it makes you feel.

I’m staring out into the night, trying to hide the pain
I’m going to the place where love
And feeling good don’t ever cost a thing
And the pain you feel’s a different kind of pain

In here the song says that he was feeling a pain, but that he was going to the place where happiness was free and where the “pain you feel is a different kind of pain”.  As I heard this part of the song, I immediately knew that this was the song for the poem. As I kept listening to the song, apart that I related it to my own life, I kept feeling the same peace and happiness that the poem conveyed in me and smiled the same way.

“The miles are getting longer, it seems, the closer I get to you” can be compared to “And the homebound stranger from a thousand li arrives.” because he talked about distance in this fragment, the distance he had between his family and where he was captive, the emotional distance for not being able to be with them in those years he was away from home.

The song and the poem are emotional, specially when we are away from home and there are days that we feel homesick. Both of them talk about love, different kinds of love, but is still an emotion that mostly every human being experiences.

Here is the video of the song:

I seemed to understand Du Fu’s “I Stand Alone” poem the best. Since I listen to a lot of reggae/dancehall music, I choose a song that best describes the lonely lifestyle that nature is experiencing in this poem. The song is called “Lonely” by Alkaline. In the song as well as the poem, the feeling of loneliness is apparent and the need to find someone or something to help fill that void.

“A single bird of prey beyond the sky, a pair of white gulls between riverbanks.”

In this line, I sense loneliness due to the fact of emptiness in the region. Among an enormously vast sky, whose length is immeasurable, there only appears to be one bird. That seems to be unreal in many cases because usually when you see one bird, you end up seeing an entire flock. The image of the pair of white gulls between the riverbanks also depicts loneliness due to the fact that the diameter between riverbanks is also quite vast, but within this space only lies two gulls. Just like the case with the birds in the sky, gulls also come in a flock. The reason why this poem depicts loneliness so well is the fact that it goes beyond the norm, and by that I mean if we saw all this empty space we’d assume something is wrong. If you were to take this poem literally, we while find the “emptiness” within the description quite “weird” and not something that’s usually present.

“We only have three people and a nuh lie
  Just me, myself and I.”

Du Fu’s presentation of loneliness correlates with Alkaline’s lyrics. What this artist is saying essentially is that without someone in his life and being in a state of loneliness and disparity, all he has left is himself. Just like the bird and the gulls, they seem to be the only things left to exist in that time frame.

The sense that nature is in control of what is happening in the plot also seems a little out of the ordinary.Just imagine a forest. It is a clear example of loneliness at its finest. And why is that? It’s because humans tend not to live in forests. But if one brave soul decided to live in the middle of the forest, they would sense the immense loneliness. “I stand alone in thousands of sources of worry.” This quote depicts a person, all alone, with all these worries in the world and no one to share it with. Which relates to discussion we had in class about Li Bai’s “Drinking Alone Under the Moon.” In a sense that when you’re all alone and have no one to share your worries or feelings with. In Li Bai’s case he resorts to drinking to fill the void with his imaginary friends.

“Gwaan like me happy but mi all alone
A hope fi even just call me phone”

And relating the last line of “I Stand Alone” to Alkaline’s “Lonely,” Alkaline puts on a facade of being happy, when on the inside he is truly alone and unhappy. The hope that someone would call his phone or pay him a visit, he ends up alone with all his worries concealed and no one to share them with.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQuAIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4gsv4lhypTM&ei=BOzTVJzYNIungwSevoMo&usg=AFQjCNH0_CLDQ8aJUJPagLm3dW7AYZr4uQ&bvm=bv.85464276,d.eXY

Lyrics:

http://www.dancehallreggaeworld.com/alkaline-i-feel-so-lonely-lyrics-and-audio.html

As I was going through the poems in search of one that will remind me of a song; I was hopeless. I have to admit that I almost gave up as none of them reminded me of a song that I know. I rarely find myself in a situation where I can’t come up with something but this was one of those times that I was just stuck. I decided to give this another try in an hour. The first poem I read was “Zhongnan Retreat” by Wan Wei which just by reading two lines reminded me of song “Home” by Daughtry (http://youtu.be/7bnX-6sJZBw ). It was not necessarily all the lyric which I will talk about in the next paragraph that made me think of the song. The description of a place with such warmth and longing shining through the verses made the two really similar.

Wan Wei described his special place in the following words:

“My late homes at the foot of Southern Mountain.

When the feeling comes, each time I go there alone”

The above ties really closely to the lyrics by Daughtry:

“I’m going home

Back to the place where I belong

And where your love has always been enough for me”

Both authors shared a common feeling for their home buried deep inside their hearts. Home was described as a special place for both of them.

As times passes, poetry never expires but it changes its format from a word written in a book to multimedia on the internet. The authors describe their feelings in a poetic format that could be passed and remembered by many.

  While reading Li Bo’s Drinking Alone with the Moon, an overwhelming feeling of escape came over me.

A pot of wine among the flowers

I drink alone, no friends with me.

I raise my cup to invite the moon.

He and my shadow and I make three.

These lines remind me of how I felt when I heard Sia’s Chandelier

Click to view Sia’s Chandelier video.

(The video does not reflect the lyrics exactly)

One two three one two three drink

One two three one two three drink

One two three one two three drink

throw’em back till I lose count

In both pieces the you feel the the writer attempting to escape reality with the help of alcohol.  Li Bo’s escape has him in the middle of woods near a river drinking alone, while Sia is drinking at a bar having one after another until she loses count.  Both excerpts could be interpreted as someone just having a drink until the next line of both pieces.

Li Bo:

The moon does not know how to drink;

My shadow mimes my capering’

But I’ll make merry with them both-

An soon enough it will be Spring

I sing-the moon moves to and fro.

I dance-my shadow leaps and sways.

Still sober, we exchange our joys

Drunk-and we’ll go our separate ways

Sia:

I’m gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist like it doesn’t exist

I’m gonna fly like the birds of the night feel my tears as they dry

I’m gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

Well I’m holding on for dear life

wont look down wont open my eyes

keep my glass full until morning light

cause I’m just holding on for tonight

Li Bo is clearing escaping reality by giving life to the moon and his shadow and human qualities.  The moon is dancing with him while his shadow leaps and sways.  knowing that he is alone also adds to the feeling or the perception of escaping reality.  Sia speaks of swinging from a chandelier drunk and compares it to flying like a bird in the night while drying tears from her eyes.  In both pieces the you can’t necessarily tell if they are escaping something traumatic or maybe celebrating a joyous occasion.  I could and maybe would enjoy both actions for positive and negative situations.  Being so drunk that you imagine the moon and your shadow are part of your party as well as swinging from a chandelier could spell out a great night if a positive situation caused the drinking, but if something negative caused it, this behavior could lead to much worse situations.

I was going through a rough time and this song helped me get through it.  the last verse of the song feels like the last 2 lines of Li Bo’s poem.

Li Bo:

Lets pledge-beyond human ties-to be friends,

and meet where the Silver River ends.

Sia:

On for tonight
‘Cause I’m just holding on for tonight
Oh, I’m just holding on for tonight
On for tonight
On for tonight
‘Cause I’m just holding on for tonight
‘Cause I’m just holding on for tonight
Oh, I’m just holding on for tonight
On for tonight
On for tonight

Ending both pieces like this gives me the impression that its to escape something negative.  Li Bo making a pledge with his shadow and the moon to be friends beyond human ties and Sia saying shes just holding on for tonight suggests that there was something both Li Bo and Sia was trying to escape and drinking allowed it to happen.  I was escaping negative feelings when I would listen to Sia’s song.  The holding on for tonight was me trying to remain in that place where I was happy before all the changes.  The alcohol allowed me to believe, even if for a few hours that it was not happening.

I read the translations of Ch’ang Kan by Li Po and the translation that was the most touching was the one by Ezra Pound. The poem is about a young woman who writes to her husband about how she feels about him. She starts out by describing how they first met and how innocent and naive they were at that age. Then she says how shy she was when they married and how she couldn’t be herself. After a year she opened up to him and she was able to accept that she wants and needs him. When he left for travel, she describes how everything has changed and even the animals and plants have sobbed their tears of pain from the separation. She says how hurts she is and states,

They hurt me. I grow older.

If you are coming down the narrows of the river Kiang,

Please let me know beforehand,

And I will come out to meet you

As far as Cho-fu-Sa.

This poems reminded me of this song by Gym Class Heroes called Ass Back Home. This song is also about a woman who is waiting for her love to come home. Although, in this song we here his side of the story and what he has to say about his absence. He says,

When you call and I don’t even know what city I’m at
Or what day of the week in the middle of the month
In a year I don’t recall
It’s like my life’s on repeat and the last time we spoke
I told you I wouldn’t be long,
That was last November, now December’s almost gone
I’d apologize but I don’t realize what I’m doing wrong.

He apologizes and asserts that she has been nothing but amazing throughout him being gone for a long time. In the end of the music video he comes home and the couple rejoice in happiness.

link to music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltOR2VzDZFM

link to lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gymclassheroes/assbackhome.html

When I was reading the poem “South of the Walls We Fought” by Li Bo, I thought of it as being very descriptive about war and how scary it was, just seeing people die and suffer. The song that I found most connected to the poem was “One” by Metallica. In both the song and poem it tells a story about the life at war, being injured was not something new. Sometimes these injuries cause them to think about death. In which they don’t want to die but when it comes to an unbearable pain, they would rather die. In the poem it stated:

“The Xiongnu treat slaughter as farmers treat plowing;

since bygone days only white bones are seen”

Throughout the poem it describes it like war wasn’t unusual and it happened every year. The life of the people who invaded Han Empire were murdered and treated horribly. Everyday these people would fear for their life, as if any second it would have been taken away. Eventually people in the army will grow old leading them to be less active and as a result the army will decrease in size. The scene after war was horrific; dead bodies everywhere. People wished it was just a dream. In the following quote from the poem it stated:.

“Kites and ravens peck men’s guts,

fly with them dangling from their beaks

and hang them high”

“Now the world is gone, I’m just one

Oh, God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh, please God, help me, help me”

You can listen to the song in the link provided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw

Lyrics: http://www.songlyrics.com/metallica/one-lyrics/

For this assignment, I choosed Li Bo’s poem “Ch’ang Ka”-translated by Ezra Pound. This poem is about human emotions of longing in love, and pain at separation from the loved one. There are many songs which could be related to these emotions that are portrayed in the poem, but the first song that came to my mind after reading it is the song- “Here without you” by rock band 3 Doors Down. Even though, Li Bo’s poem was written from a female’s prospective, and the song was written from a male’s, they both convey the similar emotion-sadness over separation from the significant other.

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead

I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.

You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,

  You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.

Throughout the poem, we observe that the wife is walking through the memory lane of her life, and remembering all the beautiful moments that she spent with her husband, ever since childhood. In other words, in her “lonely mind”, she is  reliving those moments. These similar sentiments could be observed in the following lyrics of the song “Here Without You”:

“I’m here without you baby

But you’re still on my lonely mind.

I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time”

Basically, in here the singer is pointing out how lonely it is for him to be away from his loved one, and regardless of the distance, she is always with him-in his thoughts, in his dream. These feelings of longing, and loneliness could be easily relate to the river-merchant’s wife’s situation in the poem.

Moreover, in the last stanza of the poem, the river-merchant’s wife’s pain is being reflected through the changes in nature; while she observes these changes by standing at the same place where she last saw her husband.

“You dragged your feet when you went out.

By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,

Too deep to clear them away!”

Nevertheless, these changes in nature saddens her more; since it also reminds her how the time is passing by, and still  life is not getting any better as her husband hasn’t returned yet. Likewise, through the following lyrics the singer conveys somewhat similar emotions:

The miles just keep rollin’

As the people leave their way to say hello

I’ve heard this life is overrated

But I hope that it gets better as we go.

In here, he expresses how time and distance keeps streching, but the pain of separation doesn’t get any better for him. This situation in the song also reflects the river-merchant’s wife’s feeling. In both cases, the wife, and the singer are hurting to be away from their significant other, and all they can do is hope and dream to be with their loved one soon.

Click here to listen, and watch the music video of “Here Without You”-by 3 Doors Down

Click here to listen, and watch it with the lyrics.