"difficult road" [ghazal]
Such a face is seen at the end of a difficult road
there's grace of green at the end of a difficult road
the space machine was sent to the Moon or Venus
but erase that scene let's tend to the difficult road
the colors of sunset bloody the western sky
I face an uneven blend & a difficult road
there are sirens in the air but autumn is warm yet
in case of need they send for a difficult road
when the pir was here the boats remembered sailing
every face could see the end of a difficult road
when we strolled by the river the soul of my soul relaxed
you can taste ice-cream at the end of a difficult road
the evening bells are tolling now in my city
I'll chase the breeze I'll mend my difficult road
a handful of ghosts! but not even smoke was there
your embrace could mean the end of a difficult road
yearning to hear your voice a little more often
does the race grow keen toward the end of a difficult road?
not yet have I begun my song & already
my pace it seems portends a difficult road
even when you're sincere you fall into falsehood
you face this even then on the difficult road
the condition for happiness? here's an arresting paradox!
it's based on being detained by a difficult road
an angel was watching the poet (the years rolled by)
in case he three words penned "a difficult road"
when destiny wistfully cradled the dice I wonder
did her dice forsee the end of a difficult road?
it's said you play at Taroh does your Egyptian soul
retrace in me some friend from a difficult road?
each house & street finds a different mix of drama
strange grace can be the blend of a difficult road
some streets are asphalt some are earth some stone
there's lace & gleam at the end of a difficult road
on easy street old friends in evening sauntered?
their days had been well-kenned on a difficult road
when you & your cat appeared along the highway
I traced in dream the bend of a difficult road
though I sport in slant a vague independent outlook
my home-base completely depends on a difficult road
like other humans we're as rich & plain as poridge
what place is mean nigh the end of a difficult road?
supposing he said he aimed to bequeath you the moon?
would he base this conceit on the Zen of a difficult road?
the ways of heaven are hard indeed to discern!
its grace may be to send a difficult road
when Khizr revealed the secret of his intention
he displayed the key & end of a difficult road
the sense of every swara is rendered differently
one phrase can be an end or a difficult road
when Robbie Basho played his "Shakespeare Wallah"
we could taste the ease of a friend on a difficult road
The road to Shu is bitter quoth the poet
he essayed a sweet lament for a difficult road
Easy is the path! it was said in China
just forsake your need to forfend a difficult road
initially there's a map & the boast of a tavern
if you stay you'll see them wend a difficult road
the way here led past stars & seas & mountains!
one day we'll need to ascend the same difficult road
how easy is love's serenade! stage left her window
but the play can easily bend to a difficult road
the name of the game is confusion is it clear now?
the way to be her friend is a difficult road
conventionally complaint of the road is a brag
sustaining the plea pretending a difficult road
ah difficulty has a way of turning authentic
children playing in glee can descend a difficult road
it's wrong to worry for difficulty the beloved
each day might freely blend a faux-difficult road
is the sport of love a challenge or an idiom?
does your baby need to send you a difficult road?
the blues suggest how ubiquitous is awareness
of the ways heart seeks to transcend its difficult road
if the poetries of the world were a porcelain saucer
you could place your teacup friend on a difficult road
I crave the tea of beauty stirred with honey
even lazy bees remember a difficult road
even the breeze is afraid of stirring her tresses
yet in shade of her tree they amend his difficult road
not yet have you asked her mood? nor sought her story?
in the glade I've seen her tend the difficult road
when as babies we're born we receive a slap! thus opening
the space wherein we apprehend the difficult road
the poetry seemed as clear as kohl no clearer
as you wade in the sea you'll descend a difficult road
you're already trapped! admit you were born in this prison
the way to be free is to wend the difficult road
Ardeo kept musing struck by your easesome nature
his case has seen (my friend) quite a difficult road
the sense of every swara is rendered differently :
swara (Skt.) signifies a musical note -- any of the notes of the gamut. The idea in this line will be familiar to students of Indian classical music: each note, in terms of the "poetry" of the musical line, achieves its character through its relationship with the other notes in the given raaga. The thought in the 2nd line is at least an amusing conceit, even if in practice, typically a given phrase might not be so ambidextrous as the line suggests? (You can chalk this off to poetic license.) Still, there's perhaps a grain of truth in it. At least with some phrases, sometimes the phrase will indeed variously appear at end a line, or followed by other phrases (thus becoming an element of the ongoing road). Whether it's the end (at least of the line -- not really of the raaga) depends on whether something else comes after it. Repeition and variation. And repetition.
The eccentric genius and American steel-string solo-guitar innovator Robbie Basho used to play his own version of a musical theme heard in the soundtrack to Satyajit Ray's film Shakespeare Wallah.
The road to Shu is bitter : the eponymous refrain of one of Li Bai (aka Li Po)'s most celebrated poems (Shu Dao Ku. The word ku means both "bitter" and "difficult". The metaphorical sense of a difficult mountain path was memorably developed by the poet in that poem.) Double-checking via an online dictionary (which latter is now in my sidebar links), here's the definition given for ku : bitter/ intensely/ miserable/ painful/ -- a lot for one syllable. ;-) A standard translation of "Shu dao ku" has been "The road to Shu is hard!" My link offers what looks to be a new translation of the poem, plus the translator's own blues-style "transcreation" from it.
Easy is the Path / all you have to do is renounce preferences -- would be a more literal rendering of the famous Chan (Zen) adage from (I think) Tang dynasty China. If I recall aright, this was among some Chan lore that Australian poet Francis Brabazon includes in his magnum opus, Stay With God (1958). The saying is frequently cited in Zen literature.
(My earlier not yet have I begun my song -- this is a phrase borrowed from Brabazon.)
The Khizr story is ubiquitous in Sufi literature, and is said to have its locus classicus in the Qoran itself.
Perhaps that will suffice for notes. The reader may notice that in this ghazal, a more ambitious and rigorous approach to rhyming is observed: every stressed syllable in the 2nd line follows the rhyme pattern. Partly to emphasize this "music" (familiarizing the ear with its little sound-gesture), I folllow the (sometime) example of Hafez and (no doubt) others by electing to display the rhyme syllables not only in the 1st line of the 1st sher, but also in the 1st line of the 2nd sher [couplet]. By the way, the 2nd sher of this ghazal could be considered a very loose (poetic) paraphrase of an utterance of Meher Baba's found in one of his last books, The Everything and the Nothing (1964). Though unlike the Hafez (etc.), my line [the space machine] repeats the 3 rhymes but doesn't repeat the radif (repeating phrase). Anyway, I'm ignorant of the Farsi etc., alas; my models are seen thru a (translation) glass, darkly.
hmm -- just added the "when as babies we're born" couplet; then I wrote four more couplets, mistakenly using the '-ap" sound for 3rd rhyme (should've used "-end" sound). A boo-boo. I'll park the outtakes here; they're now margenalia.
Ah, a solution. If I add an opening and a closing sher, this becomes a separate ghazal. (Okay: added several.)
Today if we see the trap of a difficult road
our page had agreed to wrap a difficult road
today if the hill of happiness seems remote
we may now need to grapple with difficult roads
we can think of ease! we could speak of breakfast pancakes!
the maple agrees while I tap the difficult road
I dream a dream and in the dream it's winter
the same dream frees the sap for the difficult road
yes winter will come & pallid snow may flurry
when faced with these we could nap by the difficult road
the dream is built in a land that few call home
though the mason reads the map of a difficult road
many sleepers glimpse this land & swiftly forget it
displaced by the bleeding gap of a difficult road
the harpist embraced his harp as a pillow-of-solace
in the glade of sleep he escaped from a difficult road
the twirling globe with its lands & dreams & rivers
became the scene for enacting a difficult road
While Ardeo was keying his poem the morn was deleted!
you could place on his sheet the rap of a difficult road
there's grace of green at the end of a difficult road
the space machine was sent to the Moon or Venus
but erase that scene let's tend to the difficult road
the colors of sunset bloody the western sky
I face an uneven blend & a difficult road
there are sirens in the air but autumn is warm yet
in case of need they send for a difficult road
when the pir was here the boats remembered sailing
every face could see the end of a difficult road
when we strolled by the river the soul of my soul relaxed
you can taste ice-cream at the end of a difficult road
the evening bells are tolling now in my city
I'll chase the breeze I'll mend my difficult road
a handful of ghosts! but not even smoke was there
your embrace could mean the end of a difficult road
yearning to hear your voice a little more often
does the race grow keen toward the end of a difficult road?
not yet have I begun my song & already
my pace it seems portends a difficult road
even when you're sincere you fall into falsehood
you face this even then on the difficult road
the condition for happiness? here's an arresting paradox!
it's based on being detained by a difficult road
an angel was watching the poet (the years rolled by)
in case he three words penned "a difficult road"
when destiny wistfully cradled the dice I wonder
did her dice forsee the end of a difficult road?
it's said you play at Taroh does your Egyptian soul
retrace in me some friend from a difficult road?
each house & street finds a different mix of drama
strange grace can be the blend of a difficult road
some streets are asphalt some are earth some stone
there's lace & gleam at the end of a difficult road
on easy street old friends in evening sauntered?
their days had been well-kenned on a difficult road
when you & your cat appeared along the highway
I traced in dream the bend of a difficult road
though I sport in slant a vague independent outlook
my home-base completely depends on a difficult road
like other humans we're as rich & plain as poridge
what place is mean nigh the end of a difficult road?
supposing he said he aimed to bequeath you the moon?
would he base this conceit on the Zen of a difficult road?
the ways of heaven are hard indeed to discern!
its grace may be to send a difficult road
when Khizr revealed the secret of his intention
he displayed the key & end of a difficult road
the sense of every swara is rendered differently
one phrase can be an end or a difficult road
when Robbie Basho played his "Shakespeare Wallah"
we could taste the ease of a friend on a difficult road
The road to Shu is bitter quoth the poet
he essayed a sweet lament for a difficult road
Easy is the path! it was said in China
just forsake your need to forfend a difficult road
initially there's a map & the boast of a tavern
if you stay you'll see them wend a difficult road
the way here led past stars & seas & mountains!
one day we'll need to ascend the same difficult road
how easy is love's serenade! stage left her window
but the play can easily bend to a difficult road
the name of the game is confusion is it clear now?
the way to be her friend is a difficult road
conventionally complaint of the road is a brag
sustaining the plea pretending a difficult road
ah difficulty has a way of turning authentic
children playing in glee can descend a difficult road
it's wrong to worry for difficulty the beloved
each day might freely blend a faux-difficult road
is the sport of love a challenge or an idiom?
does your baby need to send you a difficult road?
the blues suggest how ubiquitous is awareness
of the ways heart seeks to transcend its difficult road
if the poetries of the world were a porcelain saucer
you could place your teacup friend on a difficult road
I crave the tea of beauty stirred with honey
even lazy bees remember a difficult road
even the breeze is afraid of stirring her tresses
yet in shade of her tree they amend his difficult road
not yet have you asked her mood? nor sought her story?
in the glade I've seen her tend the difficult road
when as babies we're born we receive a slap! thus opening
the space wherein we apprehend the difficult road
the poetry seemed as clear as kohl no clearer
as you wade in the sea you'll descend a difficult road
you're already trapped! admit you were born in this prison
the way to be free is to wend the difficult road
Ardeo kept musing struck by your easesome nature
his case has seen (my friend) quite a difficult road
the sense of every swara is rendered differently :
swara (Skt.) signifies a musical note -- any of the notes of the gamut. The idea in this line will be familiar to students of Indian classical music: each note, in terms of the "poetry" of the musical line, achieves its character through its relationship with the other notes in the given raaga. The thought in the 2nd line is at least an amusing conceit, even if in practice, typically a given phrase might not be so ambidextrous as the line suggests? (You can chalk this off to poetic license.) Still, there's perhaps a grain of truth in it. At least with some phrases, sometimes the phrase will indeed variously appear at end a line, or followed by other phrases (thus becoming an element of the ongoing road). Whether it's the end (at least of the line -- not really of the raaga) depends on whether something else comes after it. Repeition and variation. And repetition.
The eccentric genius and American steel-string solo-guitar innovator Robbie Basho used to play his own version of a musical theme heard in the soundtrack to Satyajit Ray's film Shakespeare Wallah.
The road to Shu is bitter : the eponymous refrain of one of Li Bai (aka Li Po)'s most celebrated poems (Shu Dao Ku. The word ku means both "bitter" and "difficult". The metaphorical sense of a difficult mountain path was memorably developed by the poet in that poem.) Double-checking via an online dictionary (which latter is now in my sidebar links), here's the definition given for ku : bitter/ intensely/ miserable/ painful/ -- a lot for one syllable. ;-) A standard translation of "Shu dao ku" has been "The road to Shu is hard!" My link offers what looks to be a new translation of the poem, plus the translator's own blues-style "transcreation" from it.
Easy is the Path / all you have to do is renounce preferences -- would be a more literal rendering of the famous Chan (Zen) adage from (I think) Tang dynasty China. If I recall aright, this was among some Chan lore that Australian poet Francis Brabazon includes in his magnum opus, Stay With God (1958). The saying is frequently cited in Zen literature.
(My earlier not yet have I begun my song -- this is a phrase borrowed from Brabazon.)
The Khizr story is ubiquitous in Sufi literature, and is said to have its locus classicus in the Qoran itself.
Perhaps that will suffice for notes. The reader may notice that in this ghazal, a more ambitious and rigorous approach to rhyming is observed: every stressed syllable in the 2nd line follows the rhyme pattern. Partly to emphasize this "music" (familiarizing the ear with its little sound-gesture), I folllow the (sometime) example of Hafez and (no doubt) others by electing to display the rhyme syllables not only in the 1st line of the 1st sher, but also in the 1st line of the 2nd sher [couplet]. By the way, the 2nd sher of this ghazal could be considered a very loose (poetic) paraphrase of an utterance of Meher Baba's found in one of his last books, The Everything and the Nothing (1964). Though unlike the Hafez (etc.), my line [the space machine] repeats the 3 rhymes but doesn't repeat the radif (repeating phrase). Anyway, I'm ignorant of the Farsi etc., alas; my models are seen thru a (translation) glass, darkly.
hmm -- just added the "when as babies we're born" couplet; then I wrote four more couplets, mistakenly using the '-ap" sound for 3rd rhyme (should've used "-end" sound). A boo-boo. I'll park the outtakes here; they're now margenalia.
Ah, a solution. If I add an opening and a closing sher, this becomes a separate ghazal. (Okay: added several.)
Today if we see the trap of a difficult road
our page had agreed to wrap a difficult road
today if the hill of happiness seems remote
we may now need to grapple with difficult roads
we can think of ease! we could speak of breakfast pancakes!
the maple agrees while I tap the difficult road
I dream a dream and in the dream it's winter
the same dream frees the sap for the difficult road
yes winter will come & pallid snow may flurry
when faced with these we could nap by the difficult road
the dream is built in a land that few call home
though the mason reads the map of a difficult road
many sleepers glimpse this land & swiftly forget it
displaced by the bleeding gap of a difficult road
the harpist embraced his harp as a pillow-of-solace
in the glade of sleep he escaped from a difficult road
the twirling globe with its lands & dreams & rivers
became the scene for enacting a difficult road
While Ardeo was keying his poem the morn was deleted!
you could place on his sheet the rap of a difficult road
the hapist verse alludes to a tale in Book I of Rumi's Mathnawi (perhaps will cite it more specifically later)
posted by david raphael israel at 6:09 PM
4 Comments:
I enjoy how you find such a variety of images that could serve as subjects themselves.
There are some beautiful lines here: soul of my soul relaxed, I'll mend my difficult road, I traced in dream the bend of a difficult road. This is very good to read as always.
Hey, thanks for the link!
En,
ah the Robbie Basho link -- sure. I'll prob. add a few other links later. Just now, I also added some 7 more couplets to the poem -- though it's rather long.
Basho was a friend of mine, happy to say. I also typed up his (now lost, alas) poetry manuscript, which he entitled The Divan of Sky Bull. In doing so (in my youthful arrogance), I made all kinds of changes in his language! The reason it's lost, is that I had a bunch of stuff in storage, that (through a misunderstanding) was thrown away by somebody. After Basho died, I had been given some of his things, including that manuscript. I'm guessing it was the only copy. Anyway, perhaps this idle story emphasizes the theme of the above poem. Basho was in some sense a trailblazer, with his avid & creative impulse to blend elements from Eastern and Western art, thought, music, poetry. In terms of example, more important than this fact of blending, is perhaps the naturalness of his approach. That is: he exemplified the cultivation of a sensibility, as a thing in itself. The music he created was distinctive; but it was completely subserviant to the sensibility. Anyway, without any definite conclusion, it's interesting to muse on this a bit.
I think that is the key phrase--the naturalness of his approach. It makes for good poetry.
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