Bookworm, Early 20's. Sometimes in Northern California, sometimes in New England, sometimes elsewhere. Blog contains things that make me smile and screaming. Young Wizards fandom. Talk to me about MDZS and Guardian.
[ID: A series of tweets by @/Jane Prester that read,
“If you are trapped inside by the smoke and watching your air quality steadily decline- here is somethung you can do right now to make things slightly better.
Get every spare pot/pan/container/bucket you have and fill them halfway with water, place these everywhere in your house you have the space to safely do so. The idea is to create as much watery surface area as possible- the water will gradually absorb smoke particles and clean the air. It’s small, but if you have enough surface area it can make a *very* meaningful difference over 2-3 hours.
Another thing you can do is run a hot shower until your bathtub is 1/2 filled up- leave the batroom door open. The rush of humidity into your living space will knock many of the smoke particles down onto the floor. (Do this every few hours as needed as needed).
I know how it looks but this set up has kept the air quality in my bedroom basically normal for the past 3 days. It’s an improvised solution- but it’s one that works surprisingly well and doesn’t require much in the way of materials.”
The end of the series of tweets is followed by a picture of many containers of water and a fan, domonstrating the set up described. /END ID]
I recently commissioned Floor @bipirate to draw my Destiny OCs and I absolutely was not disappointed!
This is Amara and Clementine out for a walk in the Last City! Just look at them!! They’re out there having a good time together!
This is actually a snapshot from the massive story I wrote for and about them – they’re en route to an open market where Amara will obtain her first rare taste of a particular fruit, fall instantly in love, and finally give her Ghost his name. C:
Hello! It’s me, the funerary ritual person swinging back to ask if u know of any poems about death/grieving?
(funerary ritual!!! always a fascinating time)
oh boy oh BOY do I have good news for you!!!! There’s a whole genre of poems in Chinese called 悼亡诗 daowang shi, which originally referred to those poems written by a man mourning his deceased wife, but has later come to encompass the mourning of all family members and friends. The tradition is chock full of grief/mourning poems.
Baidu-Baike tells me that the origin of the term 悼亡 came from the Western Jin era (roundabout 3rd-4th century C.E.), in a collection of three poems by 潘岳 Pan Yue in memory of his wife of twenty-four years. The second of the three begins:
皎皎窗中月，/ Clear and bright, the moon in the window
照我室南端。/ Shining on the southern edge of my room
清商应秋至，/ The qingshang music echoes the autumn equinox
溽暑随节阑。/ The damp summer follows to its close
凛凛凉风升，/ Cold and severe, a cool wind rises
始觉夏衾单。/ I begin to feel my summer robes few
岂曰无重纩，/ How can I speak of lacking thick silk layers?
谁与同岁寒。/ Who will endure the winter of years with me?
(full text -- alas, could not find a translated version -- can be found on baidu-baike here)
But just because that’s where the genre name is coined doesn’t mean that folks weren’t mourning their dead family members from the beginning of written language. We could head all the way back to the beginning, with the 《诗经》 Shijing / Classic of Odes -- off the top of my head, there’s 蓼莪 Liao’e in the 《小雅》section, which specifically mourns one’s parents:
蓼蓼者莪、匪莪伊蒿。
哀哀父母、生我劬勞。
Long and large grows the e;
It is not the e but the hao.
Alas! alas! my parents,
With what toil ye gave me birth!
(full text and translation of this poem can be found on ctext by James Legge)
Once you get to the Tang Dynasty, you’ve got 元稹 Yuan Zhen and 白居易 Bai Juyi holding down the fort:
《遣悲怀三首·其二》/ “Three Poems Dispelling the Sorrow in My Heart,” the second
元稹 Yuan Zhen
昔日戏言身后意，/ In bygone days, we joked about time after death
今朝都到眼前来。/ Today, it has come to pass before my eyes
衣裳已施行看尽，/ Your old clothes, I’ve given completely away
针线犹存未忍开。/ Your sewing box, I’ve yet to open
尚想旧情怜婢仆，/ Thinking of our old love, I take pity on your servant girls
也曾因梦送钱财。/ For a dream [of you], I’ve given them money
诚知此恨人人有，/ I understand, with my heart, that everyone has this sorrow
贫贱夫妻百事哀。/ Penniless and poor, husband and wife, a hundred griefs
Here’s one of Bai Juyi mourning Li Bai:
《李白墓》Li Bai’s Tomb
采石江边李白坟，/ By the Caishi riverside -- Li Bai’s tomb,
绕田无限草连云。/ Circling the grave, grass unceasing runs to the clouds
可怜荒垄穷泉骨，/ Pity the desolate earth, the bones buried deep beneath*
曾有惊天动地文。/ they once held words to shock the heavens and shake the earth
但是诗人多薄命，/ but poets are often born under unlucky stars
就中沦落不过君。/ they fall, mid-journey, and none surpass you.
*there’s a reference here to 黄泉 huangquan / ‘the Yellow Springs,’ i.e. the underworld, that I didn’t translate
And I would be horribly, horribly remiss if I didn’t include this mourning poem to end all mourning poems by 苏轼 Su Shi:
《红城子·乙卯正月二十日夜记梦》Son of the Red City· Record of a Dream, On the Twentieth Day of the First Month
十年生死两茫茫，/ Ten years parted by life and death,
不思量，/ won’t think back
自难忘。/ hard to forget
千里孤坟，/ A thousand miles distant, a lonely grave
无处话凄凉。/ nowhere to speak of my loneliness and desolation
纵使相逢应不识，/ If we met again, we would not know each other
尘满面，/ face of dust
鬓如霜。/ hair of frost.
夜来幽梦忽还乡, / Night comes, faint dreams, suddenly returned home
小轩窗，/ by the window
正梳妆。/ brushing your hair
相顾无言，/ Eyes meet, wordless
惟有泪千行。/ only a thousand tracks of tears
料得年年断肠处，/ who could have guessed these years of broken hearts
明月夜，/ a moonlit night
短松冈。/ short pine hill.
ffs Su Shi let me LIVE
I don’t usually go past the Tang/Song era in terms of poetry, which means I’ve been neglecting another one of my favorite 词 poets of all time, 纳兰性德 Nalan Xingde (courtesy name 容若 Rongruo), who’s actually a fascinating figure -- he’s early Qing Dynasty, part of the Manchurian ruling class, but deeply appreciative of Han Chinese culture and ended up studying the language well-enough to become a highly respected poet. He also has quite a few 悼亡 daowang poems to his name.
Also, he died at the age of 30. talk about poets born under unlucky stars, Bai Juyi
Because this is a CQL blog, I gotta talk about 《木兰花令》, because it has the line 人生若只如初见, which is the title of this tear-jerker track on the CQL OST
人生若只如初见，/ In life, if we could be as when we first met
何事秋风悲画扇 / What need would would we have to mourn painted fans when the autumn winds arrive? [1]
等闲变却故人心，/ Thoughtlessly, change twists your heart, old friend
却道故人心易变 / yet you say to me that the hearts of old friends change easily
骊山语罢清宵半，/ Words spoken at Li Mountain, a clear dawn, a vow [2]
泪雨零铃终不怨 / Tears like rain patter down, but in the end, no resentment
何如薄幸锦衣郎，/ How can you compare to that unlucky man in embroidered robes?
比翼连枝当日愿 / who wishes, to this day, to be biyi birds, entwined trees
references, references, references in this poem!
[1] an anecdote of a Han Dynasty concubine who compared herself to a fan in autumn -- to be left aside and forgotten, now that the need for it and the summer heat has passed
[2] here, and for the rest of the poem, Nalan Xingde is referencing the sweeping love story of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan, immortalized in this epic Bai Juyi poem, containing some of the quintessential allusions and metaphors hereafter used in descriptions of undying love
One last Nalan Xingde poem, and then I gotta run:
《画堂春》Painted Hall in Spring (this is a 词牌 cipai, i.e. the melody the poem was supposed to be set to as lyrics, and has no relevance to the content of the poem)
一生一代一双人，/ One life, one age, a pair of people
争教两处销魂 / but we are separated, our souls overwhelmed with sorrow
相思相望不相亲，/ thinking of you, gazing at you, but never coming close
天为谁春 / who does the spring come for?
浆向蓝桥易乞，/ It would be easy to meet on Lan Bridge,*
药成碧海难奔 / what’s hard is escaping to the jade-green ocean*
若容相访饮牛津，/ If only we could meet, and drink of heavenly waters*
相对忘贫 / facing each other, we would forget hardship
*playing it fast and loose here with translating allusions, because in these three lines Nalan Xingde is calling on three separate myths of star-crossed lovers -- 裴航 Pei Hang, 后羿 Hou Yi and 嫦娥 Chang’e, 牛郎 Niu Lang and 织女 Zhi Nv
Ooof, started getting a little side-tracked at the end here towards love poetry, but given the origins of 悼亡 daowang poetry in specifically mourning your dead spouse, you can see where the line starts to get fuzzy.
(here are another 32 poems that are tagged with ‘悼亡’ daowang on shicimingju.com for your further perusal!)
you know what’s a real burden? a person that is so scared of leaning on other people that they try to be completely self sufficient and you end up either having to help them indirectly to save their ego or they have to break down in order to receive help, both of which are so much more heavy to the person that loves them than just being leaned on casually
So I started this design last august, lost steam, and then was doodling some more hand letter sea song lyrics today when I remembered I had this half-finished illustrator file somewhere on my hard drive.
There will probably be more of these lyric designs, stay tuned!
Nah dude, some police are genuinely trying to make the world a better place. They go through a lot of shit so that they can try and help people. I hate most of the shit police do. I don't like being told what to do either. But people are fucking killing cops. That's people killin people and it's fucked. You're the death of your own cause if you condone violence and murder ya dumb fuck. Black lives matter, let's protect them by not murdering good people and giving nazis any sort of argument.
Gonna break down this response as clearly as possible.
The origins of the police are evil.
It has been shown repeatedly that the police were formed to oppress the working class and (1, 2) and enforce white supremacy (1, 2, 3). In fact, the early U.S. police grew directly out of slavery.
The police aren’t the people you think they are.
The police don’t care about you – they don’t even have a constitutional duty to protect you. They’re allowed to take your property without your consent (the NYPD seizes so much property they can’t even log it in their computers). In fact, cops are more likely to steal your property than burglars are. They commit hundreds of crimes and human rights violations against people like you & me and get away with it because they cover for each other.
Cops tend to be unusually aggressive, authoritarian, and secretive (Greene & Heilbrun, 2011). They are more than twice as likely to commit domestic violence than the rest of the population, and (once again) they cover for each other when doing so. The police are on the side of neo-Nazis (1, 2). In fact, many times the police themselves are the neo-Nazis/klansmen (1, 2, 3). And even besides all this, cops do all kinds of other shady shit – for instance, undercover police are used to instigate fights during protests and rallies.
The police terrorize those of us who are marginalized.
The police disproportionately arrest Black people for drugs even though white people use drugs more often. They disproportionately pull Black people over for traffic stops. The police terrorize people with disabilities.They are viciously anti-indigenous – and always have been. Police terrorize sex workers. There are countless examples of police brutalizing homeless people (1, 2, 3). The police have a lengthy history of brutality against the LGBT community (1, 2). They terrorize women of color and get away with it (1, 2, 3). They kill massive numbers of people each year – and a disproportionate number of their victims are Black and native. On top of that, recent data suggests cops may kill up to twice as many people as we even thought they did. And while police love to defend themselves by saying they have the most dangerous job, that’s not even close to being true.
The police’s best kept secret: We don’t need them!
A world without the police is completely possible (1, 2, 3, 4). We have resources for resolving violence as communities without the need for state intervention (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – as some examples). We as communities are better capable of resolving violence than the police are, because we don’t have the vested interest in the status quo that they have. Even if a few cops are well-intentioned here or there, it doesn’t change that the role of the police is to work against the vast majority of us in the interests of the (white) elite few.
Why are you so invested in the police when they are complicit in your dehumanization?
Cotton candy, unless it’s a flavor in something else, and then neither, ew.
25. first song you remember hearing?
My parents sung me the Shema every night when I was a kid, presumably since I was born.
30. places that you find sacred?
Redwood forests, the ocean, quiet libraries, the abandoned shack in the woods near me, this weird tiny metal temple I found out by the water a few months ago, when they (used to) close off the streets for the art festival once a month and people would be dancing and eating, anywhere from where you can see both mt. diablo and mt. tam at the same time, esp if you’re on one of them, an empty barn in the late afternoon, synagogues, little secret creeks in the middle of the city, empty lots full of wildflowers, those redwoods that you can stand inside of, big old warehouses full of weird art, little alters you find in strange places, the labyrinths up in the hills with small gifts in the center, the spot on the hill where a house burnt down but no one rebuilt so it’s full of wildflowers, when a bunch of oak trees grow together and you can go stand inside the hallow between them, etc.
this is a masterpost specifically for @firebreathing-bookworm so ignore this if that’s not you! I may compile the info in here into a different masterpost for more general audiences later. carry on!
For @penstab and anyone else who wants them, these are some of my favorite gen or T-rated CQL and MDZS fics, in the order I have them bookmarked, not by quality: (edit re: ratings: a couple of them are unrated but i’m pretty sure neither of them include sex; paper clouds is still updating so could potentially in the future I guess)
-https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615762 Probably one of my absolute faves. Teacher WWX in the cloud recesses. Contains adorable baby Lan ocs, Sizhui and Jingyi being the best as usual, and slightly time in LQR’s POV than I usually see, but damn it’s so good!!
-https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706962
This is a modern jingyi/sizhui au set in China and they’re dancers. It’s not my fave in terms of characterization or plot, but what it does do REALLY WELL is that it’s written by a Chinese person about China and you can really feel their love for the setting and culture coming through, they have SO MANY informational footnotes and my nerd self was in heaven. Probably best to just think about it as it’s own thing but a+ in terms of cultural info and setting.
-https://archiveofourown.org/works/23246545 dad lwj in the cloud recesses. Just really soft. Excellent Lan juniors.
- https://archiveofourown.org/collections/mdzs_to_read/works/23910592 MUSIC VIBES!!! This one has such good vibes that I sent it to my friends who know nothing about CQL but are musicians b/c it’s just so comforting. Modern au, also soft.
- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23903962 Post canon Jingyi/Sizhui. I’m just a sucker for anything with the juniors tbh.
-https://archiveofourown.org/works/22249330/chapters/53128888 Baby A-yuan being a baby. It’s by my friend so I’m contractually obligated to rec it but it’s also adorable.
@penstab if you tell me more specifically what type of things you like or dislike i might have more recs!
oh and an honorary mention to https://archiveofourown.org/works/23835790/chapters/57277843 which are MDZS inspired recipes, because this is the best new use of ao3 I’ve seen in a while. Food blogs are out, fandom inspired recipe fics on ao3 are IN, it’s better in every possible way.
For @penstab and anyone else who wants them, these are some of my favorite gen or T-rated CQL and MDZS fics, in the order I have them bookmarked, not by quality: (edit re: ratings: a couple of them are unrated but i’m pretty sure neither of them include sex; paper clouds is still updating so could potentially in the future I guess)
-https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615762 Probably one of my absolute faves. Teacher WWX in the cloud recesses. Contains adorable baby Lan ocs, Sizhui and Jingyi being the best as usual, and slightly more time in LQR’s POV than I usually see, but damn it’s so good!!
-https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706962
This is a modern jingyi/sizhui au set in China and they’re dancers. It’s not my fave in terms of characterization or plot, but what it does do REALLY WELL is that it’s written by a Chinese person about China and you can really feel their love for the setting and culture coming through, they have SO MANY informational footnotes and my nerd self was in heaven. Probably best to just think about it as it’s own thing but a+ in terms of cultural info and setting.
-https://archiveofourown.org/works/23246545 dad lwj in the cloud recesses. Just really soft. Excellent Lan juniors.
- https://archiveofourown.org/collections/mdzs_to_read/works/23910592 MUSIC VIBES!!! This one has such good vibes that I sent it to my friends who know nothing about CQL but are musicians b/c it’s just so comforting. Modern au, also soft.
- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23903962 Post canon Jingyi/Sizhui. I’m just a sucker for anything with the juniors tbh.
-https://archiveofourown.org/works/22249330/chapters/53128888 Baby A-yuan being a baby. It’s by my friend so I’m contractually obligated to rec it but it’s also adorable.
@penstab if you tell me more specifically what type of things you like or dislike i might have more recs!
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
stormborns
origamiaround
titsay
