Solitude (Anna Akhmatova)

This is my version of a translation from the Russian of a poem by Anna Akhmatova written in 1914. Thank you to Betsy (carinadolce) for drawing my attention to this poem! 

Solitude

So many stones have been flung my way,
They fizz past, I no longer cower
And this ivory cage in which I stay
Now stands tall, a majestic tower.

To those who carved out its mighty wall,
I am grateful for the part they played.
I wish them joy and would bless them all,
"May sorrows pass you, be not afraid".

Now the first splendid glimpse of sunrise,
And sunset's bright rays, laughing their last,
Through my chamber windows greet my eyes,
While winds of the northern seas fly past.

From my hand, a dove eats grains of wheat.
Meanwhile, the fragment verse calmly waits
For the Muse's worn hand to complete
The gift divine from the palm of fate.

Frithjof Schuon's Art & Philosophy

Paintings by Schuon to Nox Arcana:

Schuon on his philosophy (a remarkable tour de force in less than 3 minutes):

Quoting, Printing or Saving parts of webpages

http://www.kwout.com

If you want to quote part of a website which includes graphics (so you can't just highlight it), here's a cool way of doing it! Go to the kwout link and enter the address of the webpage you wish to quote in the box where it says "http:// ...", drag a box over the region of the webpage you wish to quote, click "Cut Out", then choose the options that suit you and copy the code given to embed the image of the chosen area somewhere else on the web.

As for printing parts of a webpages, a very simple trick I only learnt recently is that of highlighting the part you wish to print, then when you print, click on "print selection only". This is a good way of avoiding banners, advertising etc. that usually plague the tops of webpages. Not all browsers have this option though, but some do, such as Firefox.

And one final note, suppose you want to save the selection, but not necessarily print it. Then, again you highlight and "print selection only", but you also check the option "print to file", so instead of printing, the selected part of the webpage will be saved as a file on your computer.

Chopin - Kobayashi, Igoshina, Lisitsa & Rubinstein

I've been listening to a lot of Chopin the last few weeks.
The delicacy of Valentina Igoshina I shared in a past video post:

Nancy said: She IS Chopin.... This was playing when we wandered through the garden of Żelazowa Wola, his birthplace....lovely... okei said: :))))

It turns out there's another talented Valentina: Valentina Lisitsa. Her finger-speed is quite special, and she seems especially good at the fast, complicated, powerful pieces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5VTBdKbFM

And then there's the master Arthur Rubinstein, here performing in his last recital at the age of 89!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twW1WXltX90
He played the same piece in the 1950 film Carnegie Hall when he was only 63. And he also played it here to the Moscow Conservatory in 1964. You can tell he knew how to have fun...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsl7XDTBaJo

And maybe... this is the future? :^)

A Trick for Reading Old Books on the Computer

http://www.gutenberg.org

Perhaps there's a better way of doing this (in which case please enlighten me), but I've discovered recently about Amazon's Kindle for computer. Technically, Kindle is a handheld device for storing books on which it is apparently quite pleasant to read, but there is also a version for computer. If you go to Amazon, you'll notice many books offered for Kindle for free. The only catch is that you have to have a Kindle to read them. But if you look under "1-click purchase (for $0.00)", you'll find a link to download "Kindle for Mac" or "Kindle for PC", which is actually a neat piece of software. Then for all the books no longer under copyright, even though Amazon may charge for them, you can pick them up for free at the following sites:

http://www.gutenberg.org
http://www.archive.org
And what's great is that for any book on these sites, there will be an option for Kindle, which will allow you to read it using that piece of Amazon software. Opening the Kindle option will automatically add that book to your library on your Amazon Kindle (and you may delete it later if you wish, though if you get it not from these sites but from Amazon, Amazon will always remember and have it archived for you to put back in your library even if you don't want them to). Technical note: the actual source files will be in the Documents folder if you have a Mac and end in .azw.

But who wants to read long books on a computer? I'd rather borrow or buy them. Still, there are aspects of the Kindle software which actually make it quite useable though I'd normally hate to read long things on a computer. Most notably, by pressing Apple and + on a Mac (and no doubt something similar on a PC), you can enlarge the font and narrow the window and the text adjusts to the screen, so you can read from a greater distance than normally at a computer or from a smaller part of the screen than normal. Also, you can highlight passages and add notes, and the software saves the parts you've highlighted or annotated (and in the case of Amazon books even backs them up for you, again it seems though you might not want it to). And finally, of course, the books are searchable.

Merry Christmas Dear Friends!

Some funky world music to see the old year out with. :^)

Reflections on the Dao (Lao-Tzu)

Ingredients:

Verses 1-25 of Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) in haiku form.

The image is "Mysterious Portal" by Baron Arild Rosenkrantz.

Directions:

1.
Behind words and names
Are the nameless origins
And the gate of Truth.

2.
Teach without words, for
Knowledge creates opposites.
Act smooth – don’t attach!

3.
Show no preferences!
Empty minds and fill bellies
For natural order.

4.
Inexhaustible,
The soft mother of all things,
Deep, still and timeless.

5.
Nature lacks humour.
It thrives in empty spaces
In the fertile mean.

6.
The valley spirit,
Ever last, ever present,
She produces all.

7.
Masters and planets
Live for the Way, not themselves,
So long they endure.

8.
Be fresh like water,
Nourishing, not comparing,
Supple, and go deep.

9.
Don’t overdo it.
When your task is done, step back!
Such is Heaven’s Way.

10.
Can you breathe softly,
Birthing, but not possessing?
This is true Virtue.

11.
Some things have value,
But power lies in empty space
Open to intent.

12.
Senses overwhelm.
Be satisfied and look in
To waken insight.

13.
He who loves himself
And respects his own suffering,
You can trust the world.

14.
An unceasing thread,
Merging in One formless form,
Thus begins the Way.

15.
The Masters of old,
No doubt seemed muddy like fools,
Unrefined, unknown.

16.
Emptiness boundless,
Centred in stillness, in fate
One sees what’s constant.

17.
The best kings are known,
The next best are loved and praised,
The worst are hated.

18.
When the Dao is lost,
We find the concepts of love
Replace the real thing.

19.
Knowledge, craft, planning,
Rid the people of these three,
Embrace the genuine!

20.
Indifferent and still,
Like a child who’s not yet smiled,
I drink my Mother.

21.
The utmost life force
Shapeless, formless, trace it back
To the obscure source.

24.
Those who overreach,
Affirming self, lose their ground.
So they are toppled.

22.
An old paradox,
“Bend over, you’ll be kept whole.”
In wholeness, you shine.

23.
One with death finds death,
One with life finds life, so too
One with Virtue’s Way.

25.
Four great mirrors are:
Man, Earth, Heaven and the Dao.
The Dao is in all.