#owen stephen

[weatherwaxironboots]

Fucking doing this cloud atlas deep dive and I've started with researching the phrase

"the weak are meat and the strong will eat"

and the man who wrote it

Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty.

Oh what a time Han Yu lived in, a time of great change and activity, the flood of Buddhism and Taoism caused him much worry. His world was filled with poetry, poetry was key to communication in his day to day experience. His time is reffered to as a "golden age of great antiquities" often across many different texts.

I am starting with Han Yu and I know that this is just the beginning.

Managed to find this handy book of analysis and translation.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sowen/files/owen_stephen_-_the_poetry_of_meng_chiao_and_han_yu.pdf

[weatherwaxironboots]

I'm continuing my deep dive into cloud atlas and I'm investigating Han Yu so I'll share some of that here.

The Pheasant Struck By An Arrow

Han Yü

On the plain fires burn with silent determination,

Field pheasant, fearing the hawk

Come out and sink back down again.

The general wishes to humble others by his skill,

Turns his horse around, bends his bow.

But holds back and does not shoot.

The area gradually gets narrower, onlookers increase,

The pheasant starts up, the bow stretched in full,

A strong arrow in the notch.

It soars abruptly upward, against the people,

More than a hundred feet,

Red pinions and the silvery barb follow

Toward one another slanting.

The general looks up and laughs, his officers congratulate him,

As many-colored feathers fall scattering before the horse.

From Page 21 of "the poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yü" by Owen Stephen

[goodtimesfilm-blog]

Owen Stephen always entertains his crowd, he lives to give people a good time whether playing his own songs or the theme song to a popular 90s sitcom.

[goodtimesfilm-blog]

The last time director Toby Halsey collaborated with musician Owen Stephen, the short film Until Now

[againstatroubledsky]

the Broadgrass band

[devinsbloggg]

Relaxing with the band tonight before the gig tomorrow. Photo by Dr Matt Young.