“Beneath the blossoms with a pot of wine,
No friends at hand, so I poured alone;
I raised my cup to invite the moon,
Turned to my shadow, and we became three.”
Li Po,“Drinking Alone in the Midnight” (eighth cent.) (translation by Elling Eide)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes
Tagged asian-pacific history, poetry, professional development
“Chingiz Aitmatov: (1928-2008) Kirghiz novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Born in the Central Asian republic of Kirghizia, Aitmatov inherited a love for Russian literature from his father (who died in 1937, a victim of Stalin’s terror) and for traditional Kirghiz folktales and customs from his mother. In 1952 he qualified as a veterinary technician and published his first story. After a period of study in Moscow, Aitmatov returned home to work as a journalist in 1958 and soon gained a national reputation with the publication in the journal Novy mir of ‘Jamilya’ (1959), a love story that challenged both traditional Kirghiz custom and the new ‘socialist’ morality. This and other short stories were followed by two thoughtful novels, Proschai, Gulsary! (1966; tr Farewell, Gulsari, 1970) and Bely parakhod (1970; tr The White Ship, 1972). Aitmatov is best known in the West for his play (written with Kaltai Mukhamedzhanov) Voskhozhdenie na Fudzhiamu (1973; tr The Ascent of Mount Fuji, 1975). A subtle treatment of the suppression of dissidents, it caused a sensation when first produced in Moscow in 1973. One of the few genuinely talented writers to emerge from the government’s drive to transform the non-Russian nationalities into parts of the total Soviet state, Aitmatov began increasingly to criticize the impact of Russification, collectivization, and a non-nomadic way of life on traditional Kirghiz society. A subsequent work to appear in English is the novel The Day Is Longer Than a Hundred Years (1980; tr 1983). One of this most recent works, Plaka (The Executioner’s Block, 1986) was received with much interest in Russia.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Shwe Dagon: Pagoda in Yangon (Rangoon) that is the center of Burmese religious life. A Buddhist temple complex begun in the 15th century, Shwe Dagon is constructed of brick in the form of a cone and is completely covered with gold. Raised over a relic chamber, it was rebuilt several times and was brought to its present height of 326 feet (99 meters) in 1841 by King Tharrawaddy. The pagoda sits atop a hill that rises 168 feet (51 meters) above the city.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one’s mind right.”
Ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddimah vol. 3 (ca. 1380)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
“Etel Adnan: (1925-2021) Lebanese poet. Adnan’s works record the devastation of Beirut by civil war. Adnan is a Lebanese Christian who writes in both Arabic and French, and much of her work has been translated into English. Her seven volumes of poetry include Arab Apocalypse (1980) and From A to Z (1982). She renders the effects of the war in fragmentary poems that are formed from shards of language, often punctuated by abstract drawings, barring the reader from assembling a coherent narrative. Her one novel, Sitt Marie Rose (1982), also resists a linear reading: it is told not only from the perspective of its female protagonist, a Christian supporter of the Palestinian resistance, but also from that of the Phalangist Christians who hold her hostage. Adnan’s manipulation of the point deftly illustrates the complexities of the Lebanese political crisis.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Satnami sect: Religious community in India that challenges political and religious authority by worshiping the supreme god Satnam. Combining practices from Islam and Hinduism, Satnamis typically reject both the worship of images and the caste system, while retaining an underlying orthodox Vedanta philosophy. Modern Satnamis are confined almost entirely to the low-status Camar caste, and they advocate social equality as well as ethical and dietary self-restraint.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“Men and women, young and old, regardless of creeds, political parties, or nationalities, all the Vietnamese must stand up to fight the French colonialists and save the fatherland. Those
Ho Chi Minh, Proclamation, 19 Dec. 1946 (translation by Peter Wiles)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Bharhut sculpture: (mid-2nd century BC) Indian sculpture that decorated the great stupa, or relic mound, of Bharhut, in Madhya Pradesh. It is now mostly destroyed; the railings and gateways that remain are in Calcutta’s Indian Museum. The ornamental medallions depicting legends of the of the Buddha’s previous births and event in his life are labeled, and so are indispensable for an understanding of Buddhist iconography. The Bharhut style marked the beginning of Buddhist narrative relief and decoration of sacred buildings that continued for several centuries.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“Joryu Bungaku: Japanese term for ‘women’s writing.’ Although women played a significant literary role in the Heian era (794-1185), female writers all but disappeared in the succeeding periods of military turmoil. After struggling to reassert themselves in the late 19th century, women writers emerged in such numbers that by the 1920s, the term joryu bungaku, or ‘writing of the women’s school,’ was uniformly applied to any female-authored work. While protecting women from obliteration from the dominant male mainstream, the classification nevertheless restricted female literary expression to one prescribed by gender, and relegated all women writers, regardless of their artistic diversity, to a single ‘school.’ Disparate examples of joryo bungaku are Miyamoto Yuriko and Nogami Yaeko.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Aspen Institute: A supermarket of conventional wisdom for middle-level executives. Corporate life, particularly for those not on the fast track, has all the bureaucratic pitfalls of directionless boredom. To distract these confused but loyal servants from what Thoreau called their ‘lives of quiet desperation,’ they are periodically shipped off to rest camps where, over the period of a few days, they are taught important things which can change their lives, their company, the world. Failing that, the experience may help them hold on a bit longer.”
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
Posted in Quotes, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, philosophy/religion
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