Ash Wednesday

God only knows how many revisions the above translation has gone through. It was such fun of doing it though. Next, I'd like to seek Chinese corporation sponsorship to have as many participants as possible in my project of translating this great work of English literature into Chinese.

A literary Journal for Mercer County Area High School Students

Kristina Languione
Allentown High School Grade 12

Secrets Do Not Exist

If you reveal your secrets to the wind,
Do not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees,
And if you think the wind's done no such thing,
You probably could find out from the bees.
Or maybe the birds heard while passing over them,
And whispered it to the worm when they snatched its head.
Because you'll never really ever know
Who knows what and who told them so.
Or who heard that and twisted it around.
And who made it a lie, or has never heard a sound.
So if you reveal your secrets to the wind,
Do not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
When you tell somebody's secret, you're as good as a thief.

I Think That There Is Something Missing

Tonight I just feel like I'm missing a part of me,
Like my body's missing something it simply needs,
Itching a phantom limb can be pretty scary
And it's a quivering, awakening thought.

Tonight I just feel like I'm not who I used to be,
Like I've convicted so many I know or meet,
After a while you drift too far to see,
That insignificant place called start.

So tonight it's okay to say you don't belong,
Whether you're missing a leg or an arm,
You will find a part to attach right on.
It won't feel real, but it's easy.

Hi Badvogato

Because I do not hope to turn again
-> verbatim translation of G.Cavalcanti
-> Perch'i' no spero di tornar giammai


Because I do not hope
-> ditto but truncated

Because I do not hope to turn
-> ditto but truncates less


Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
-> a minor mod from Shakespeare's Sonnet 29
-> Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things
->

(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
->

Why should I mourn
->

The vanished power of the usual reign?
->


Can you help me fill in the remaining blank of magpie TSE?
code reuse or what???

I am taking a free online course from arrayForth Institute. What's up with you, any breakthrough lately?

Prof. Brian Kernighan kindly wrote me back about a potential quote I contributed to his class 'Why (In)numeracy matters'. It's a quotation stealing from another book 'IDEOGRAM - Chinese Characters and the myths of disembodied meaning' by J.Marshall Unger.

1. Or to quote the jolting warning my colleague Galal Walker gives students:"If you study Chinese with the goal of making Chinese listen to the same stuff you say in English to Americans, you're just learning how to piss off a billion people the hard way."

T.S.Eliot's four quartet hasn't been in-tune with my ears yet. But we'll see.

someone says that 'To understand something, one takes it apart. To love something, one has to put it back together again.'

Badvogato's Chinese rendition sings more towards 'Ash Wednesday' than TSE's art hand-molested by Ezra Pound ;-)