“Who will wake up at the end of my dream?” ~ Jacques Roubad

Two for Tuesday: Nature in Asian Art

“Praying Mantis on Loquat Bamboo” (two scrolls, ink and color on paper)
by Zhao Shao’ang

                   

Zhao Shao’ang, Chinese (1903-1998)
Lingnan School, ink and watercolors on paper, scrolls

“Bamboo and Bee” (1960)

“Autumn Time”

“Praying Mantis”

“Cicada on Green Willow” (1945, ink and color on paper)

“Chrysanthemum”

“Flower and Mantis” (nd, attributed)

“Evening Breeze” (1984)

“New Year Blossoms”

“Autumn Chill” (1984)

“Cicada on Branch”

“Flower and Bee” (ca 1946, ink and color on paper)

“Dragonfly” (1982, ink and color on paper)

                    

Blossoms at night,
and the faces of people
moved by music.

~ Kobayashi Issa, trans. Robert Hass

After the Gentle Poet Kobayashi Issa

New Year’s morning—

everything is in blossom!

   I feel about average.

   A huge frog and I

staring at each other,

   neither of us moves.

   This moth saw brightness

in a woman’s chamber—

   burned to a crisp.

   Asked how old he was

the boy in the new kimono

   stretched out all five fingers.

   Blossoms at night,

like people

   moved by music

   Napped half the day;

no one

   punished me!

Fiftieth birthday:

   From now on,

It’s all clear profit,

   every sky.

   Don’t worry, spiders,

I keep house

   casually.

   These sea slugs,

they just don’t seem

   Japanese.

Hell:

   Bright autumn moon;

pond snails crying

   in the saucepan.

~ Robert Hass

                   

Music by Luke Sital Singh, “Fail For You”

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