Haiku

By Mizuta Masahide

My storehouse burnt down,
There is nothing to obstruct
The moon-view.
(trans. Blyth)

Now that my storehouse
has burned down, nothing
conceals the moon.
(trans. Yoel Hoffmann)

Comments : This article in the Indian Express supplement today quoted the haiku above. I loved the attitude displayed in the haiku and decided to run it on the blog.

Gotta Serve Somebody

By Bob Dylan

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You might be a rock 'n' roll addict prancing on the stage,
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage,
You may be a business man or some high degree thief,
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk,
You may be the head of some big TV network,
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame,
You may be living in another country under another name

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,
You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk,
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk,
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy,
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy,
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray,
You may call me anything but no matter what you say

You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Comments : Read a reference to this song in the paper, and had to hunt out the lyrics. I assumed that Dylan was being his usual cynical self (and who serves up cynicism better than him, ....except for Cohen maybe), but apparently this was written during a phase in which religion crept into Dylan's song-writing. As a paean to the Lord, I don't like the song much. But seen through a filter of cynicism and sarcasm, I love it, whether Dylan intended it to be read that way or not.

Random snippet

‎'Yesterday someone said, "It gets late so early."
I wrote it down. I was going to do something with it.
Maybe it is a title and this life is the poem.'
~ Naomi Shihab Nye

Comments : A friend had this as her status update on facebook. I liked it enough to post it here. Someday I promise to hunt out biographical info on the poet and other poems by her. - Zen

Pessimism's Ghost

(this post is copied from Falstaff's blog - http://2x3x7.blogspot.com/2011/03/pessimisms-ghost.html)

It takes a particular kind of despair
To see the glass half emptied of air.

Comments : Tongue-in-cheek, and concise - Just delicious. Started grinning when I read it. - Zen