The army drums cut off human travel,
A lone goose sounds on the borderland in autumn.
Tonight we start the season of White Dew,
The moon is just as bright as in my homeland.
My brothers are spread all throughout the land,
No home to ask if they are living or dead.
The letters we send always go astray,
And still the fighting does not cease …
Maybe one day I’ll write something like this, when Facebook and Gmail and cell phones are dead and gone and only the moon knows what my people are doing.
5 thoughts on “Thinking about my brothers”
Yes! This is great poetry by the Master, Du Fu. The theme of loneliness, the longing for home, family & friends is starkly portrayed in Du Fu's poetry. You can hear the plaintive cry here of the lonely wild goose:
Lone wild goose, not drinking, not feeding,
flies crying, calls out his longing for the flock.
Who pities his lonely form,
lost from the others in ten-thousand-layered clouds?
I gaze to the end of gazing, still seem to see him;
so great my sorrow, I seem to hear him again,
while crows in the field, wholly unconcerned,
go on as before with their raucous cawing.
I have no doubt that you think often of your brothers. Know that they too think often of you and that they look forward to your blogs updating them on your thoughts and the current events in your life.
Here in the nei today, I've thought often of Du Fu. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, it is almost impossible not to drift back to May 12, 2008 when China's earthquake struck. Du Fu's hut was destroyed along with so much more and so many. It was a bright spot to see some words from Du Fu even if they reflect a certain longing, a bit of loneliness.
Your child will be born soon. All of your brothers are thinking of you and your child. You may long, you may feel lonely but the inclusion of a child into your life likely means that you will rarely ever get to be alone!
Yes! Good idea to have some wise words when ceel phones, face book and other electrical devises die. According to the Mayans, that will happen very soon. BEFORE 21st desember 2012. It is predicted that our sun will have plasmic eruptions , withc will send out very powerfull uv radiotions, witch will knock and melt satelites, electric systems, witch again will crack finatial and goverment institutions,then it is good to know how to survive in nature, and to have some good words of wisdom to tell ones fellow mates and survivers. I am looking foreward till those times
you know i feel both of you … Kim is my brother and Watching I am not sure who you are but I'm down. I be writing a lot these days and its kinda like … wokring out or something … i write a lot of BS money things but it gets the juices flowing for other stuff. its all just primer for when the ish hits the fan and all i got is coal, water, wood pulp and a chicken bone. or powder, a palm and a stone wall …
Sascha, I thought you knew who I am. Once I was Anonymous, writing of my love coming to me from across the ocean in my time of great need, leaving her love and your brother (the big man). Always, I write of the great power of love, of the intense & everlasting bonds that are created through the connections of the heart. In your writing, you help to further those connections as you share your thoughts and insights along with the details of impending fatherhood. I am blessed to be able to watch, to just observe and to feel.
After China's May 2008 earthquake, you sheltered my child along with her big man who I also love so much. Soon you will know the feeling that this engenders in a parent. There is a special place in a parent's heart for people who care for your child when you are far, far away. And it will matter not one whit whether that child is 2 years old or 22. It will be great to read the chronicles of your adventures!
i figured 😉 i like the anonymous watcher persona … i love the way you push me further and seem to know exactly what to say. i love your daughter and her big man very very much i feel that letting them live with me for a bit ain't nothing, i got mad more i need to give them