A venue to share my enthusiasm for the Welsh-born fantasist, Kenneth Morris (1879-1937)
It originally appeared in the Dutch magazine, Het Theosophisch Pad , for September/October 1933. I discovered it some years ago, but way too late for it to have been included in The Dragon Path: Collected Tales of Kenneth Morris (1995). Titled "Our Lost 'Others': A Toltec Legend," it is a standalone story but it is related to Morris's posthumously published novel, The Chalchiuhite Dragon (1992).…
Night on the Lake After Chang Ch’ien Sunset bright in the west, and the lake agleam; Dark my sails their rippled reflexion throw; Woods and mountains one vast mystery seem Now that the jade-bright cloud pagodas glow, And as purple petals fallen on the waters low, The islet shadows, and faint in the distance loom The gates of the town, and the mists creep in tiptoe— The Spirit finds itself in the…
Dawn at the Mountain Monastery After Chang Ch’ien Morning, clear as a diamond, steals into the Halls of Zen; Over the tilted eaves dawn-sweet the larch-tops glow; Glow the tops of the beeches, dawn-cool, dawn-golden; —and then, From the midst of the trees overbranching the low eaves, lo, Dropping into the quietude, comes lonely, sweet and slow, Lonely and slow, the boom and tinkle of the altar…
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Li Po Addresses Meng Hao-Jan In ruddy youth you put aside The gauds men set their dreams upon, And let who would aspire to ride In high official cars, or don Official head-dress ; quite foregone, With you, was all such vain desire; You set your hope and heart to aspire To a loftier and a lovelier blue: Wherefore my soul can never tire, O Mountain-Man,…
The Foam-White Stream After Li Po I came at dawn to the source of the Foam-White Stream, And there on the breast of the lonely mountain lay Watching a thousand beautiful islands gleam In their green and gold, and the blue of eternal dream On the world-wide waters sparkling far away. I watched the seaward white clouds drifting sail, Cloud by shining cloud through the sunlit blue, Each swiftly…
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Li Po Addresses Meng Hao-Jan In ruddy youth you put aside The gauds men set their dreams upon, And let who would aspire to ride In high official cars, or don Official head-dress ; quite foregone, With you, was all such vain desire; You set your hope and heart to aspire To a loftier and a lovelier blue: Wherefore my soul can never tire, O Mountain-Man,…
Kenneth Morris occasionally made beautiful illuminated manuscripts of his poems. Here is one of "Li Po Addresses Yuan Tan-ch’iu of East Mountain." Below it is transcription. Li Po Addresses Yuan Tan-ch’iu of East Mountain You dwell on Tung Shan worshiping Pure mountain-beauty year on year; And sleep, o’ nights of bloom-breath’d Spring. Mist-quilted, mountain-pillowed, here; These mountain forests…
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Wang Wei Praises the River Wings-of-a-Kingfisher I never go down the Yellow-Chrysanthemum River But rocked in my boat on Wings-of-a-Kingfisher Stream That winds between silent and people-less peaks forever Mirroring cloud-high bluffs where the pine-woods dream. I trust I may never go down to the beautiful river But by secretly-winding…
Lament of the Ladies of the Siang River After Yuen I-Shan Sweet-scented are the Kiu-e Mountains, where the white bright spring clouds fly Over the blooms of roses and orchids that the south wind bloweth by Shaking down the gentle petals, the bloom dust, the bloom perfume In the garden about the tomb. While a thousand springtimes pass there shall be bloom there, there shall be bloom! Dark, dark are…
The Moon and the Mountains Yu Liang Shih Spring and these mountains grow so dear I cannot leave them here alone. Their bloom-breath through my sleeves is blown. Hark! from the bell-tower, lone and clear O’er the trees the bells intone: Spring and these mountains grow so dear, Go not thou, though day is gone! Under the bridge above the weir I scooped the Moon up where she shone; Now broken-globed…
The Buddha-Tower After Ts’en Ts’an I climb thy High Pagoda: clear And clearer round me glows the sky. Comes sound nor song nor sorrow here. Hailing the White Sun drifting by, I take my refuge in thy Peace! The great forests far and near, Wherethrough the wild beasts ravening hie, Spread their greenness ’neath mine eye To the world’s utmost rim, and cease. Thridding them through, the floods of Wei…
Kenneth Morris did not call his versions of Chinese poems translations, but, rather, recensions--a kind of revision of a historical text, based on critical study of the original. To Ella Young he wrote: The business of making these is difficult sometimes and interesting always. Chinese poems mean as much as you can see in them. There is no definite end to the meaning. Morris kept a small bound…
Tsu Yung Awakes to See Snow on Mountain Chungnan How dazzling in the dawn-light glow The snows on Mountain Chungnan, Now the White Sun’s kindling up The peaks amidst the sky! How jade-green ’neath their pureness shine The forest slopes of Chungnan Now—whilst still in Changan town The Night’s so loath to die! The Theosophical Path , May 1929
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Flute-Willow-Bloom Night After Li Po Who’s fluting Spring out there in the moon-bright gloom? Who’s plucking the bloom of the willows down by the river? Over the city the music and scent of the bloom Whisper and wake through the blue dim moonlit gloom, And the ghost of a tune and gusts of the faint perfume Are blown in here to set my heart aquiver.…
The Rose-Cave on Tung Shan After Li Po By the Cave on the Mountain how oft have the roses blown, How oft have the silver clouds o’er the lonely mountain flown, And no one known, Since I came to the Cave on Tung Shan, years ago? It is all so lone, if the Moon should steal from the sky, And, scarfed in a floating mist, to the Cave of the Roses hie, To whom, or why She came to the Cave on Tung Shan,…
Night-Fall by the River After Li Po Heaven and my coat rose petal-strewn; Wine-flushed the solemn evening air,— Beauty that hides from thought how soon Life and time and the world forth-fare! And then I, star by drifting star, (All hurrying westward) climb to the moon For refuge:—and from heaven afar Down with the dreamy moonlight swoon And shine along the stream,—where now No bird ’s at song—no…
The Lily-Pads (After Li Po) Cold ’neath the moon the dark glass-green Water runs whitening o’er, as though A million silvery fins below Cut twinkling up through the quivering sheen The aloofness of grim skies leans o’er. Night has some secret grief she broods In these wide watery solitudes I think,—she fills me so with the keen Chill of her own approachless moods Eerie and sad ’twixt shore and…
The Cold Clear Spring From the Chinese of Li Po (A.D. 702-762) Blue night o’er the mountain wilds—but there’s company here, For the Cold Clear Spring is quietly chattering so: A ripple and twitter of tune that I ought to know Is caught or wrought in the rush-rimmed waters clear. A wild little witch of a runlet, lonely and dear, In the mountain wilds, and the wind in the pines to blow— Night broods…
Bamboo-and-orange Poem After Li Po Whilst I sit by my window here A breeze all sweet with orange-bloom, Blowing by me, fills the room, And I hear orange-venders near Crying their wares, and see the glow Of gold globed fruit on the trees below; And take my brush and ink, and clear On the white paper page let fall Glyphs like orange-blooms,—and all, Fall’n, become scent, bloom, trees, fruit, call Of…
Li Po Visits a Fallen Terrace on the Yangste Kiang Wild-grown willows hide away The fallen terrace where, of old, So many guests came, night and day, With lutany and laughter gay, Or hushed, to watch the rise of the Moon. Down on the stream, now waning gold, The water-chestnut gatherers sing Till dim eve’s haunted with their song Where the Great Kiang’s waves seaward are rolled. But none else…
Li Po’s Song of Parrot Island On the green island in the river, when he saw the parrots fly Thither, desiring its grasses, o’er the river waters of Wu, And rise from its gem-green trees again, to wing through the sky Westward to where the Dragon Mountain looms purple and blue: When he saw the dawn-mist, rising, reveal what was sweet on the air,— The leaves and blooms of the spear-orchid on the…
At the Hermitage After Li Po A thousand precipices high Thrust their green heads far up the sky All round. Your vale’s too high for time Winging, to climb; he comes not here. Far down below I passed the gray Cloud-veils that hide the Ancient Way From man, and in this ether clear Breathe the clear peace the Sages seek. For here immortal voices speak Audibly in the far off roar Of the white mountain…
[This is second (and last) part of an essay published in The Theosophical Path in August 1917. Part one can be found here.] Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The Chinese have had no epic poets. Like the French, they “have not the epic head.” Their poetry is all lyrical. Some poems run to a few hundred lines; but as a rule the idea was, the shorter the better. As their artists sought…
[ The Theosophical Path in August 1917. Morris’s views, and Chinese spellings, have been left to stand as originally written.] Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE To every race come alternate periods of creation and rest; they have come to the Chinese, whom we have thought permanently stagnant and unprogressive. In their great ages, this people produced a wonderful literature, for the…
The Deserted Garden (From the Chinese of Ku Chih) A crow or a couple of crows Lazily crossing the sky— None else now comes by. There are folk up there, I suppose, In the Hillside farms—but anight, Only a couple of crows Drifting over the sky. But the pear still dons bloom-snows, Lonely and proud and shy: And to heed, there's never an eye,— Only a couple of crows Lazily crossing the sky— None else…