Recently there have been a slew of articles that made me feel like a kid again. There was an article that taught me how to tie my shoes, one that showed me how to tie a scarf, and another on how to use toilet paper properly. I've re-learned so many things recently it'd be embarrassing to continue.
So here I am, an almost - but at the time I started writing this not quite - 30 year old (re)learning how to tie my shoes and live life. For a quick second I thought I was some oddball outlier. But then I started to take a look around - like really looked closely at everything again - and I was surprised (in a not so surprised way) to see so many people re-learning how to tie their shows, for reals.
When it comes to basic tasks and activites from eating to excersing and thinking, my bet is that most of us learned how to do these things by simply just following along. Following whom? Our parents, siblings, relatives, teachers, and friends of course. And that's generally good enough. We learn a small, but crucial aspect of a task, and as we get older we develop and build out our skill/know how of that task.
Let's take the example of note taking as a case-in-point. Most learn to take notes in elementary school or middle school. We were advised to keep seperate notebooks for each specific subject. As we matriculated through high school, university and beyond, this idea of 'seperation' probably continued. Maybe you now keep an array of different pens to identify different subjects, or use a specific filing technique when you save notes and documents electronically or perhaps you have different sized post-its to catagorize different thoughts. Or maybe you are "that person" who meticulously labels mini-tabs before you stick then on pages like bookmarks with medieval metadata.
With this hypothetical example at least, the guiding philosophy - that thought at the center of what note taking (as we learned it) is - has been 'seperation of different thoughts and ideas for some specific purpose.' And it works, up to a point. How many of you still have your notebooks from middle school, let alone from university or even your planner from last year? Trick question; it doesn't matter because even if you still have your old notebooks, or a hard drive full of documents, they have probably been left untouched. Everything written down or saved now remains lost and covered in that original seperation; such loss is built into and anticipated by the very way we learned to take notes.
Things are getting a little deep, no? I mean, I thought we were just talking about note taking right?! Well, we're about to get even deeper. We will now represent, symbolically, what note taking always has been but never thought of as being, what note taking has been to us, and what it could be in order to show a better way to take notes.
If you take a wide lens towards what note taking - or the recording of anything for that matter - has been throughout the history of humankind, it has simply been a long, running recording of thoughts & ideas. These recorded thoughts are all essentially functions: they are all linked to some specific thing (e.g. a passage in a book, a specifc topic, a particular lecture, an assignment, a to-do etc...). On top of that, over-arching relations run through these thoughts and ideas (e.g. time, place, a broad topic, a general thing, mood or behaviour). Much like a river, recorded notes pierce through time, are firmly connected with and touch their sorrounding environs and flow through space timelessly. This we can symbolize with the character '流'.
Now let's try to represent the essence of what note taking has been. The philosophy we etched out above should help. The driving force, the reason why we take notes is 'for some specific end' and thus we may re-present this idea with the symbol which has been used to convey acting for some things sake: '爲'.
Despite the shortcommings with taking notes focused solely on some specific end, it's hard to entirely refute the positive value or effect - however short lasting they may be - in our drive towards a better way. On the contrary, a synthesis should be what we strive for. Thus, for simplicity we can simply add a negation repesented with the symbol '無' to what we have thought note taking has been so that the resulting essence of the couplet is one where a specific end does not exist, but in the absence of such an end all ends are possible or '無爲'.
When all elements are combined we are left with '流無爲' or a flowing non-doing (i.e. not doing something for some specific end; doing something with all ends being possible without any any end being a direct impetus, focus nor a consideration of the original act). This is best exhibited in the 流無爲 note-taking app Diaro. Try it out. Use it. Carry it with you. Save it in the cloud. Add and update this flowing list across platforms and devices. Pay a little money to use it, forever. Give it to your children.
Basic tasks and how well we carry them out form the foundation of every other activity we engage in. If we can do basic things better, it would make sense that any unlocked efficiency could ripple through every other thing we do. Today, the best ways of doing things are readily available and shared through the internet. So, if we can learn the best way to do the basics, we no longer need to settle for what's simply been good enough.
2016년 8월 31일 수요일
2015년 4월 19일 일요일
Re-do
Walking across once well worn floors,
now brittle and frail, their creaks shriek for
time to leave them be,
and so I leave.
In dark basement, beer in hand, words on tap,
I channel my 李白, illuminating the shared gap
between τέχνη and ροίησις,
whilst violence rages beyond the borders that keep us.
Pittering late afternoon rain patters the city,
blanketed in mist amidst the howl of all things windy
from whence
time has slipped past since.
The last gasps of breath escape persed lips, vision fading before
brothers of other shores
destroy and claim amore;
waves crashing, stealing fore.
Swirling silent it spins, blackness blanketing its evermore,
nothing to be heard for nothing is forevermore;
time sleeps, no stir, no beat,
and so I leave.
李白 : Li Bai
τέχνη : Techne
ροίησις : Poïesis
now brittle and frail, their creaks shriek for
time to leave them be,
and so I leave.
In dark basement, beer in hand, words on tap,
I channel my 李白, illuminating the shared gap
between τέχνη and ροίησις,
whilst violence rages beyond the borders that keep us.
Pittering late afternoon rain patters the city,
blanketed in mist amidst the howl of all things windy
from whence
time has slipped past since.
The last gasps of breath escape persed lips, vision fading before
brothers of other shores
destroy and claim amore;
waves crashing, stealing fore.
Swirling silent it spins, blackness blanketing its evermore,
nothing to be heard for nothing is forevermore;
time sleeps, no stir, no beat,
and so I leave.
李白 : Li Bai
τέχνη : Techne
ροίησις : Poïesis
2014년 5월 15일 목요일
Words on tap
What are you doing? Or, what are you really doing? And, what do you really want to be doing?
Walking across once well worn floors, now brittle and frail, their creaks shriek for time to leave them be, and so I leave.
In dark basement, beer in hand, words on tap, I channel my 李白 and illuminate the secret affinity between τέχνη and ροίησις, all the while violence rages outside and past the borders beyond...
What are we doing? Or, what are we really doing? And, what will we be (really) doing?
Walking across once well worn floors, now brittle and frail, their creaks shriek for time to leave them be, and so I leave.
In dark basement, beer in hand, words on tap, I channel my 李白 and illuminate the secret affinity between τέχνη and ροίησις, all the while violence rages outside and past the borders beyond...
What are we doing? Or, what are we really doing? And, what will we be (really) doing?
2014년 1월 18일 토요일
Yesterday 2014
Yesterday was Saturday, January 18th 2014.
By all accounts a seemingly ordinary day - an ordinary day, mind you, that was free of the acrid effluvium that has tended to drift yonder from the "factories of death" that mainland China kindly incubates at the behest of the Devil him/herself (itself?); which is to say it was a good day. I woke up twice. The first time at about 6:20. Two things happened : First, I blindly stumbled over to my kitchen island to find my 'scrip of pills to combat my aching belly (the result of minor food poisoning from a Wednesday luncheon with the CEO smh) and Secondly, just as I was about to lay back down the vibration from my year 2019 LG smart phone drew my attention to one of those weekend ruining text messages - the "you have to come into work on your Sunday for no apparent reason other than the fact that your boss has to come into work" kind of message. Shaking my head again I collapsed under my covers.
In an anxiety induced early-morning dreamscape, I literally demo'd the future most tits version of all video games. It went like this: I awoke in a realm that was identical to my childhood neighborhood save for the fact that instead of being an oval it was in the form of a square, perhaps because the scale was about the size of a single floor in an average, generic corporate office building. This magnified scale essentially meant that each house was a little bigger than a normal bedroom and instead of a grassy front yard there was for some reason (cover perhaps?) the equivalent of a counter-top. Also, some apparently seedy elements appeared to have taken over the upper half of the neighborhood while leaving my lower side intact (there was a visceral feeling of sunshine and happiness on the lower side while the upper side was wrapped in fear and a dark, foreboding cloud).
Of course I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood and upon entering the limits of the upper side I saw I was about to be summarily jumped so I proceeded to sprint all the way back to my house while being pelted with threats like "we're gonna kill ya" and "our connections run deep" and so on ad nauseam. I actually felt scared when I arrived at my home because I knew someone was following me, but all of a sudden I had this revelation that I alone would have to take on the upper crust scum and fight for my life - so with a kitchen knife in my left hand and a pointed pair of scissors in the right, I squeezed both hands tight. When some goon entered I started off with some verbal sparring leaving him dazed, but still cognizant enough to let me know that if I were to put up any more of a fight I would face swift and severe retribution.
After said Nobel Prize winning speech concluded I proceeded to stab him in the face with the kitchen knife, and then the chest with the scissors partly opened. This later action sent him to the floor whereupon I dislodged the scissors with a *THWACK* only to slam them in his throat and after a little *SNIP SNIP* his trachea was in two. Knowing then that I would have to preempt any other visitor that made their way to me, I ducked under my front yard, err desk, and somehow without even thinking positioned the dream-cam(?) across from me where I could see what was coming my way from either side of my position. I saw one woman menacingly advancing towards my position from the left carrying a knife in one hand. Two things were certain: First, her name was Natasha and Two, I would jump up at the right time and simultaneously restrain the arm in which she held her knife and stab her in the face. It was then that I awoke for the second time.
Needless to say I took the rest of the remaining time in the world by the balls. I watched Heat (1995) for the first time, ran two and a half kilometers in the park across from my house - located on the side of a mother fucking mountain - and before I met my girl to go grab some Cuttlefish Mari (rice, soaked in octopus ink, spread across a square leaf of seaweed laver with 1~2 long, chewy slices of cuttlefish placed in the middle before all being wrapped up into a long roll) I casually read a bit of 孫子's 兵法.
That was my yesterday, how was yours?
By all accounts a seemingly ordinary day - an ordinary day, mind you, that was free of the acrid effluvium that has tended to drift yonder from the "factories of death" that mainland China kindly incubates at the behest of the Devil him/herself (itself?); which is to say it was a good day. I woke up twice. The first time at about 6:20. Two things happened : First, I blindly stumbled over to my kitchen island to find my 'scrip of pills to combat my aching belly (the result of minor food poisoning from a Wednesday luncheon with the CEO smh) and Secondly, just as I was about to lay back down the vibration from my year 2019 LG smart phone drew my attention to one of those weekend ruining text messages - the "you have to come into work on your Sunday for no apparent reason other than the fact that your boss has to come into work" kind of message. Shaking my head again I collapsed under my covers.
In an anxiety induced early-morning dreamscape, I literally demo'd the future most tits version of all video games. It went like this: I awoke in a realm that was identical to my childhood neighborhood save for the fact that instead of being an oval it was in the form of a square, perhaps because the scale was about the size of a single floor in an average, generic corporate office building. This magnified scale essentially meant that each house was a little bigger than a normal bedroom and instead of a grassy front yard there was for some reason (cover perhaps?) the equivalent of a counter-top. Also, some apparently seedy elements appeared to have taken over the upper half of the neighborhood while leaving my lower side intact (there was a visceral feeling of sunshine and happiness on the lower side while the upper side was wrapped in fear and a dark, foreboding cloud).
Of course I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood and upon entering the limits of the upper side I saw I was about to be summarily jumped so I proceeded to sprint all the way back to my house while being pelted with threats like "we're gonna kill ya" and "our connections run deep" and so on ad nauseam. I actually felt scared when I arrived at my home because I knew someone was following me, but all of a sudden I had this revelation that I alone would have to take on the upper crust scum and fight for my life - so with a kitchen knife in my left hand and a pointed pair of scissors in the right, I squeezed both hands tight. When some goon entered I started off with some verbal sparring leaving him dazed, but still cognizant enough to let me know that if I were to put up any more of a fight I would face swift and severe retribution.
After said Nobel Prize winning speech concluded I proceeded to stab him in the face with the kitchen knife, and then the chest with the scissors partly opened. This later action sent him to the floor whereupon I dislodged the scissors with a *THWACK* only to slam them in his throat and after a little *SNIP SNIP* his trachea was in two. Knowing then that I would have to preempt any other visitor that made their way to me, I ducked under my front yard, err desk, and somehow without even thinking positioned the dream-cam(?) across from me where I could see what was coming my way from either side of my position. I saw one woman menacingly advancing towards my position from the left carrying a knife in one hand. Two things were certain: First, her name was Natasha and Two, I would jump up at the right time and simultaneously restrain the arm in which she held her knife and stab her in the face. It was then that I awoke for the second time.
Needless to say I took the rest of the remaining time in the world by the balls. I watched Heat (1995) for the first time, ran two and a half kilometers in the park across from my house - located on the side of a mother fucking mountain - and before I met my girl to go grab some Cuttlefish Mari (rice, soaked in octopus ink, spread across a square leaf of seaweed laver with 1~2 long, chewy slices of cuttlefish placed in the middle before all being wrapped up into a long roll) I casually read a bit of 孫子's 兵法.
That was my yesterday, how was yours?
2010년 11월 26일 금요일
아 참 추수감사절 놓쳤네...
아는 사람들 다 아는데 어제는 미국 일년 중에 가장 중요하고 미국다운 빨간날 추수감사절이었다.
모르는 사람이 있을지도 모르겠지만 있으면 한국의 추석이랑 비슷한 날이라고 생각하면 된다. 온 가족들이랑 일년 내내 모든 일을 반성하고 감사하는 마음으로 모으고 칠면조를 비롯하여 풍부한 음식을 배가 터질 정도로 엄청 많이 먹는 날이다.
한국에 온지 벌써 3년 연속 이러한 행사에 참여하지 못했다. 거의 반세계 떨어지고 가을 학기가 얼마 남아 있지 않아서 몇일간에만 고향에 돌아가는 게 아까워서 그리운 마음을 참고 겨울 방학을 도착할 때까지 기다릴 수 밖에 없는 상황이다.
어쨋든 추수감사절 바로 전날에 미디어와 사회변경이란 개지루한 강연을 들었을 때 심심해서 그런지 책가방에서 오래동안 점차점차 독서하는 "한자의 이해"란 책을 꺼냈고 읽기 시작했다.
이 책은 독자들에게 한문을 익혀주기 위한 목표로서 성어와 격언, 한시 (漢詩），당시（唐詩），사서삼경 등등 한문의 대표적인 고전의 제일 중요하고 한문을 배우는데 가장 도움이 되는 부분을 한권에 모으고 각각 나누어 있다.
그날에 진난번에 읽어온 당시 부분에 이백 （李白）다음에 우연히 왕유 (王維）가 지어진 《九月九日憶山中兄弟》란 시가 나왔다.
이 시를 처음으로 감상했을 땐 유학생으로서 고향의 동생을 생각하는 심정이 참으로 진실된다고 생각했다.
시의 기구에 있어서는 외로운 나그네로서의 쓰라림을 참아견디는 심정이 넘쳐흐른다.
나처럼.
승구에는 항상 부모를 생각하는 마음에 사로잡펴 헝클어지는 심사를 달래는 다부진 내심이 연보인다.
내 마음과 같다.
전구에 있어서는 형제들의 워애로운 정이 넘쳐 곧 달려가고 싶은 결구의 애절함이 얽히는 것이다.
내가 하고 싶은 것처럼.
우애 넘치는 家族愛의 풍부함과 사랑스런 정감이 무르녹고 있다. 아래에 왕유의 작품을 원전으로, 한국어로 그리고 영어로 된 번역을 드리고 있다.
九月九日憶山中兄弟 王維
獨在異鄉為異客
每逢佳節倍思親
遙知兄弟登高處
遍揷茱萸少一人
구월구일 날에 산위에 있는 동생을 생각한다
홀로 타향에 있어 타향의 나그네 되었으니
매양 佳節을 만날 때마다 갑절이니 어버이를 생각한다
멀리 알건대, 형제가 높은 곳에 올라
모두 茱萸를 꽂았지만 나 하나 모자란다
The 9th day of the 9th month I think of my brother on top of the mountain
Alone in a foreign town I'm just another passerby,
this time of year doubles the thoughts of my loved ones.
From afar, I know my brother must have reached the summit;
everyone must have planted their cornel seeds by now, everyone but me.
모르는 사람이 있을지도 모르겠지만 있으면 한국의 추석이랑 비슷한 날이라고 생각하면 된다. 온 가족들이랑 일년 내내 모든 일을 반성하고 감사하는 마음으로 모으고 칠면조를 비롯하여 풍부한 음식을 배가 터질 정도로 엄청 많이 먹는 날이다.
한국에 온지 벌써 3년 연속 이러한 행사에 참여하지 못했다. 거의 반세계 떨어지고 가을 학기가 얼마 남아 있지 않아서 몇일간에만 고향에 돌아가는 게 아까워서 그리운 마음을 참고 겨울 방학을 도착할 때까지 기다릴 수 밖에 없는 상황이다.
어쨋든 추수감사절 바로 전날에 미디어와 사회변경이란 개지루한 강연을 들었을 때 심심해서 그런지 책가방에서 오래동안 점차점차 독서하는 "한자의 이해"란 책을 꺼냈고 읽기 시작했다.
이 책은 독자들에게 한문을 익혀주기 위한 목표로서 성어와 격언, 한시 (漢詩），당시（唐詩），사서삼경 등등 한문의 대표적인 고전의 제일 중요하고 한문을 배우는데 가장 도움이 되는 부분을 한권에 모으고 각각 나누어 있다.
그날에 진난번에 읽어온 당시 부분에 이백 （李白）다음에 우연히 왕유 (王維）가 지어진 《九月九日憶山中兄弟》란 시가 나왔다.
이 시를 처음으로 감상했을 땐 유학생으로서 고향의 동생을 생각하는 심정이 참으로 진실된다고 생각했다.
시의 기구에 있어서는 외로운 나그네로서의 쓰라림을 참아견디는 심정이 넘쳐흐른다.
나처럼.
승구에는 항상 부모를 생각하는 마음에 사로잡펴 헝클어지는 심사를 달래는 다부진 내심이 연보인다.
내 마음과 같다.
전구에 있어서는 형제들의 워애로운 정이 넘쳐 곧 달려가고 싶은 결구의 애절함이 얽히는 것이다.
내가 하고 싶은 것처럼.
우애 넘치는 家族愛의 풍부함과 사랑스런 정감이 무르녹고 있다. 아래에 왕유의 작품을 원전으로, 한국어로 그리고 영어로 된 번역을 드리고 있다.
九月九日憶山中兄弟 王維
獨在異鄉為異客
每逢佳節倍思親
遙知兄弟登高處
遍揷茱萸少一人
구월구일 날에 산위에 있는 동생을 생각한다
홀로 타향에 있어 타향의 나그네 되었으니
매양 佳節을 만날 때마다 갑절이니 어버이를 생각한다
멀리 알건대, 형제가 높은 곳에 올라
모두 茱萸를 꽂았지만 나 하나 모자란다
The 9th day of the 9th month I think of my brother on top of the mountain
Alone in a foreign town I'm just another passerby,
this time of year doubles the thoughts of my loved ones.
From afar, I know my brother must have reached the summit;
everyone must have planted their cornel seeds by now, everyone but me.
2010년 10월 22일 금요일
쉬즈모 (徐志摩）
徐志摩(1897-1931)는 중국 현대문학사 중 대표 시인이며 중국 문학 경계를 넘어서 세계 문학계에게 혁명적인 영향을 끼친 중대한 인물이었다. 《굿바이 캠브리지 (再见康桥）》，《눈꽃의 기쁨（雪花快乐）》, 《우연 (偶然）》은 주요 작품. 쉬즈모는 또한 여러 문학 단체에 활약하게 참여하였으며 1920대 중에 소위 '사상문학혁명'을 제창한 후스(胡适）, 이른바 '삼미(三美）를 제기한 원이두(闻一多)등이랑 낭만주의에 바탕을 둔 신월파 (新月社)를 결성하였다.
신월파는 당시에 활발한 창조파(创造社）의 분발한 상상력과 자유체 의 시형을 주장한 낭만주의적인 시의 운동을 계승하면서 또한 그것을 부정•극복하고자 한 시인 그룹이었다. 그들은 시인의 이상에 근거하여 자연과 사회 속에서 아름다움을 더 정련해 내고자 했으며, 이로부터 '이성에 의한 감정의 절제'라는 미학 원칙과 '시형식의 격률화"라는 주장을 제기하였다. 결국 그들의 격률시는 감정과 정서를 시의 핵심을 보면서도 이를 응축한 시 형식 속에서 정련화하려는 의식적 노력의 성과였다고 하겠다.
여기에서 '이성에 의한 감정의 절제'가 추구하는 것은 주관적 감정 토로에서부터 주관적 감정의 객관적 대사화이었다. 이를 예술적 상상과 구체적인 객관 현실에로의 변화를 통해 함축적•형상적인 표현을 이루어 내고자 하였다. 또한 이러한 미학의 원칙을 구현하기 위해, 그들은 시적 감정을 엄격히 규범화된 형식 속에 정제시키기 위한 시의 격률화를 제기하였다. 위에서 언급된 '삼미' 즉 음악미, 회화미, 검축미를 추구하였다.
쉬즈모는 낭미주의적 시를 상징한 자유, 사랑 및 아름다움의 추구를 통해 내면의 정감과 독특한 개성을 객관 사물의 이미지 속에 투사해 내면서, 한편 시의 내재적 형짓미와 음악 미의 조화를 바탕으로 한 미적 내용과 형식의 통일을 모색하였다. 역설적이게도 이러한 아름다운 사랑의 탐구를 중국 현대역사 중 가장 추하고 폭력적인 시적 때 진행한 것이다.
*공사중*
신월파는 당시에 활발한 창조파(创造社）의 분발한 상상력과 자유체 의 시형을 주장한 낭만주의적인 시의 운동을 계승하면서 또한 그것을 부정•극복하고자 한 시인 그룹이었다. 그들은 시인의 이상에 근거하여 자연과 사회 속에서 아름다움을 더 정련해 내고자 했으며, 이로부터 '이성에 의한 감정의 절제'라는 미학 원칙과 '시형식의 격률화"라는 주장을 제기하였다. 결국 그들의 격률시는 감정과 정서를 시의 핵심을 보면서도 이를 응축한 시 형식 속에서 정련화하려는 의식적 노력의 성과였다고 하겠다.
여기에서 '이성에 의한 감정의 절제'가 추구하는 것은 주관적 감정 토로에서부터 주관적 감정의 객관적 대사화이었다. 이를 예술적 상상과 구체적인 객관 현실에로의 변화를 통해 함축적•형상적인 표현을 이루어 내고자 하였다. 또한 이러한 미학의 원칙을 구현하기 위해, 그들은 시적 감정을 엄격히 규범화된 형식 속에 정제시키기 위한 시의 격률화를 제기하였다. 위에서 언급된 '삼미' 즉 음악미, 회화미, 검축미를 추구하였다.
쉬즈모는 낭미주의적 시를 상징한 자유, 사랑 및 아름다움의 추구를 통해 내면의 정감과 독특한 개성을 객관 사물의 이미지 속에 투사해 내면서, 한편 시의 내재적 형짓미와 음악 미의 조화를 바탕으로 한 미적 내용과 형식의 통일을 모색하였다. 역설적이게도 이러한 아름다운 사랑의 탐구를 중국 현대역사 중 가장 추하고 폭력적인 시적 때 진행한 것이다.
*공사중*
2010년 5월 9일 일요일
유종원 柳宗元(773-819)
중국의 당시(唐詩)라면 사람들이 자꾸 이백 李白(701-762)이나 두보 杜甫(712-770)를 무의식적으로 생각이 나게 마련이에요. 그들은 중국의 고전시뿐만 아니라 중국 문학 자체를 대표하는 시인들이기 때문이에요. 그런데 두보와 이백 이외에 또 다른 주목할 만한 시인이 누구십니까 공경하게 의문하면 제가 이렇게 대답할 거예요. 유종원이요. 저말고는 고려대의 중어중문학의 위대한 이재훈 교수님 등이 지적하듯이중국의 고전문학을 전문가로서 공부하신 학자들도 중당이나 당시 중에 유종원은 언급을 많이 받은 시인이래요.
그의 시풍은 아주 한적하고 투명하여 대부분의 전문가들에 따르면 그 시대의 매우 유행했던 산수자연의 모습과 그 속에서 체험하는 심경을 읊은 산수시로 종류되는 거예요. 유종원의 시를 감상할 때 화가가 잘 그린 그림를 눈 앞에 출현하듯이 그의 시는 잘 다듬어진 시구와 정교하고 깨끗한 풍경 묘사를 통해 산수의 신비스런 아름다움을 효과적으로 포착하고 있어요. 거의 평생을 유배지에서 보냈던 유종원은 자기가 보였던 환경을 시로 바로 그대로 간직할 수 있어요. 개인적으로 매우 재미있고 잘 지어진 유종원의 한 시를 여러분과 함께 나누워 드릴게요. 강설이라...
江雪
千山鳥飛絶, 萬徑人踪滅.
孤舟蓑笠翁, 獨釣寒江雪.
강설
온 산에 새도 날지 않고
모든 길에 인적 끊어졌다.
외로운 배에 사립 걸친 한 노인
눈 내리는 강에서 홀로 낚시 드리운다.
River Snow
Through the mountains not a bird flutters, the many trails marks now extinct.
In a lonely boat a straw hat and caped grandfather, alone holds a rod on the snow falling river.
2009년 12월 29일 화요일
Wine+christmas eves in Corea
Overextended grimy fingernails. I wake up. What day is it? I role over habitually grab my dick; i got a semi. Ask myself to wake, or not to wake. Tuesday. Overcast, like a today should be. Heartbeat reverberating in my temple, lifting myself from my death. Looking around I see my one room, Korean status room; gas burner in corner, crusted with overnight ramen packages, powder, noodles, gas nozzle left unclamped; shoes amuck, books and class printouts my carpet. Wine bottles, Stout, Grolsch and other beer bottles here and there but you shan’t call me no drunk. Chinky eyes, no racist, I think, “오늘은 나 뭐 할 거야?” and step the fuck out of bed.
Turn it on and start the bobbin of the head, put the glasses on, “turn it on Kweli,” up and then contacts poking my eyes out, or in? Grab my trampled toothbrush, not straightedge brush, lay the gel on and weed whack back and forth, but not enough for the dental hygienist; gotta floss, however, no ambition. Strip and grab the mini-size towel, place it on the knob in front of the shower door. Do the shower then hop out a shivering, it’s december, pre-christmas, sub zero, centigrade, no family just myself and dry the fuck off. Four hours sleep, slept in too much and stressing about it, but at the same time confident as fuck. The diary of an ambitious low self-esteem arrogant fuck.
Smith’s Wealth of Nation’s, 孟子, Rousseau’s Social Contract and Thoreau’s Walden stacked next to me. A few texts related to the study of traditional Chinese characters in Korean, modern Chinese and sixth level Korean fill out my winter semester curriculum. “이거 다 공부할 수 있겠냐? 그야 프라스(+) 공자의 《論語》그리고 다음 학기의 배울 이재훈 교수님이 맡으실 ‘고전독해연습’ 수업의 교재를 안 공부해서는 안 되겠다”라는 생각이 머리속에 떠올렸다. What am I? The future.
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