#ema saiko

[mournfulroses]

Ema Saikō, from a poem titled "Mother's Death," featured in Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology

[terracemuse]

was not forever.

[crazyfox-archives]

A hanging scroll dating to 1836 with a classical Chinese poem composed & inscribed by Ema Saikō (江馬細香) (1787-1861), one of the leading literati of the time highly regarded for her painting, poetry, and calligraphy:

As I become half a hundred, I begin to understand past mistakes; Slowly, slowly, my intentions have been thwarted. Cranes are tall, ducks short--it is not humans who made them so. Fish leap, hawks soar--all following the course of nature. My desires have faded away like spring snow, Old friends have vanished like stars at dawn. In the end, there is no use in potions for longevity, I only love to paint bamboo, its verdure reflected on my robe.

Image and translation from “77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars, 1568-1868″ by Stephen Addiss, Weatherhill, 2006, page 156

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

16, 31, 50

16. Oh, so many. Entire books of the Bible, Sutras, and other such texts are excellent but for pithy remarks of under a paragraph I’d have to go, solely off the top of my head, with this from the Amherst Short Text of ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ (it does not appear in other versions): 'All dreads other than reverent dread that are proferred to us, though they come under the clour of holiness, are not so in truth, and hereby may they be known and discerned, which is which. For this reverent dread, the more it is had the more it softens and comforts and pleases and rests the soul; and the false dread travails and distresses and troubles it. Then this is the remedy; to know them both and reject the false dread, just as we would do with a wicked spirit that showed himself in the likeness of a good angel, though he show himself in his pleasing talk and working ever so fair at first, yet he travails and distresses and troubles the person that he speaks with, hinders him and leaves him altogether in unrest. And the more souls an evil spirit communes with the sould the more he travails him and the farther the soul is from peace. Therefore it is God-s will that we be secure in love and peaceful and restful, as He is to us. Just as he is to us, so wills He that we be to ourselves, and to our even Christian. Amen.’ For quotes that aren’t immediately obviously religious I would have to go with the last few paragraphs of Joyce’s 'The Dead’ or possibly some section of lyrics from 'Antebellum’ by Vienna Teng. Or 'Living Quietly in Early Winter’ by Ema Saikō. A bit of an odd selection, I know.

31. Songs to Make the Dust Dance by Yung-Hee Kim. I’ll be starting a diet of Stanley Hauerwas soon, which excites me a lot; I’ve been meaning to read his theology for ages.

50. Depending on my mood, either Ugetsu, A Room with a View, Lilies of the Field, Late Spring, Umberto D., or Hausu. I usually say Ugetsu with the rest collectively tied for second.