Blog a book

My free book arrived today - Li Po and Tu Fu.

It's very technical, but I think I'm going to enjoy it.

It fell open at a page of Chinese symbols with English words underneath and I was instantly in love!

There's so much that's potentially interesting about Chinese poetry. In one sense, you can never get an exact translation, but in another, you can almost make your own translation.

This one almost reminds me of 'Solmon Grundy'.

Here's my own cheerful rough translation of one poem (I haven't looked to see how the book as put it into verse yet):

In the middle of the river, waters flow towards the east. 
Lo Yang, maiden, still your grieving,
Still your grieving.

Thirteen, weave your fine silk,
Fourteen, pick your mulberry leaves, working south along the row,
Fifteen, wed, make Lu your family,
Sixteen, live, and have your son.

The noble Lu family have elegant pavilions,
Strong beams of cassia wood, painted with gold.

There will be fresh, harmonious scents on the top of your gold pin,
twelve lines under the foot of your silk slipper.
Of a five-figured design shall be the coral of your hanging mirror,
Gleaming in the sun's rays.

Silken-haired will be your handmaiden, carrying the box with your slippers.

One can live rich, honoured,
But for what purpose and for how long?
Regret not, that you were not married,
Into the Eastern family of Wang.


Note that I've got most parts totally wrong, but it's still fun.  In fact, I discover that she has twelve gold hairpins.  It's hard to work out (as there is more pattern than punctuation) where one sentence ends and another begins.  'The south row' when picking mulberries is apparently an allusion to a well-known older song where the girl points out to the suitor that he is married already.  So, 'south on the row' is the old Chinese literary equivalent of saying "I'm not interested"  The bit about her grieving is also completely wrong.  Having read the notes, her name is Mo-ch'ou -  "do not grieve" which may not sound like a name, until you consider it as the equivalent of our name 'Joy'.  Lo Yang is actually a place name.

This - grin - is why scholarship makes a difference.

I think I'm going to enjoy this book - I would never have chosen it for myself in a thousand years, so it's a good case of serendipity.

Nesting birds

Taken a brief break from gardening as the baby great tits were getting very noisy.  I don't think the parents like approaching the nest when we're working.  So, the babies get a food break and we get a tea break.  (The parents were there with a beak full within seconds of us going indoors)

How do you get birds to nest in your garden?

1.  Nest boxes. Particularly loved by blue tits and great tits.  They work especially well for blue tits if there is an oak tree within a hundred metres.  Also, having a shrub somewhere close to the nest box may be an advantage - the parents often like somewhere to perch where they can take a quick look around to be sure it's safe to approach the nest.

2.  Ivy.  Thick ivy growing against a fence or wall.  We definitely have a pair of robins, and possibly a pair of dunnocks as well, nesting in our ivy this year.

3.  Hedges.  Prickly is best.  We have a pair of blackbirds nesting in the hedge this year.

4.  Pond.  A reliable supply of water for drinking, a shallow area for bathing, and lots of plants to support things like dragonfly larvae that make such a tasty snack for young birds when they emerge.

5.  Plants of every kind and no insecticides.  Baby birds need soft food - they can't eat seeds, nuts, etc until they are several days old.  They need insects, and that means plants.  British native plants are probably best from an overall wildlife perspective, but all plants are beneficial to some extent.

6.  Undergrowth and leaf litter.  Our dunnocks and blackbirds just love rummaging through old leaves and bits of compost that I've spread around the raspberries and under the hedge.  Yet more insect food for them (and excellent mulch for the plants)

You don't need a big garden (ours is fairly small), you just need to have lots of living things in it.  Hedges beat fences hollow - and they don't blow down in storms either.  Life attracts more life.