The Lake Isle of Innisfree I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the… Continue reading W.B. Yeats
You may forget butlet me tell youthis: someone insome future timewill think of us —Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Translated by Anne Carson. (Virago Press Ltd November 6, 2003) C. -600 BCE.
and you, sublimeAnd smiling with immortal mirth — Sappho, Come Close. Translated by Aaron Poochigian. (Penguin Classics February 26th 2015)
Kiss her foot or her lovely hand; tell her (let your kiss be heard as words): — Petrarch, from Rime sparse’s “Poem 208,” Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, transl. & ed. Robert M. Durling (Harvard University Press, 2011)
When I see and think how much air separates me from that lovely face that is always so near to me and so distant. Then to myself softly: ‘What do you know, wretch? perhaps off there someone is sighing now because of your absence.’ And in this thought my soul breathes more easily. — Petrarch,… Continue reading Petrarch
In love there are two evils: war and peace. ― Horace (December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC)
One range of mountains, Two ranges of mountains, The mountains are far, the sky high, the mists and waters cold. My lingering thoughts have reddened the maple leaves. The chrysanthemums bloom, The chrysanthemums wither. The wild geese from the border fly high, but my love has not come home. The wind and the moon play… Continue reading Li Yu (c. 937 – 15 August 978)
Leave the rest to the gods. – Horace
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death. – Horace
The Vale of Soul-Making 