"Pleasure Boat Studio”

The Art of the Personal Essay: an anthology from the classical era to
the present / selected and with an introduction by Phillip Lopate.

Book Overview

“By presenting more than seventy-five personal essays, including
influential forerunners from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Far East,
masterpieces from the dawn of the personal essay in the sixteenth
century, and a wealth of the finest personal essays from the last
four centuries, editor Phillip Lopate, himself an acclaimed essayist,
displays the tradition of the personal essay in all its historical
grandeur, depth, and diversity.”

Last week, while we were in one of the Barnes & Noble branches in
the East Coast looking for children's books for our grandsons, I found
this book, “The Art of the Personal Essay”, for myself.

“Pleasure Boat Studio” is one of the 75 essays chosen by the editor.

Ronald Egan, Professor in Chinese Literature & Aesthetics from
Harvard University, translated the essay “Pleasure Boat Studio”
written by 歐陽修, Sung Dynasty poet, essayist and scholar, on the
twelfth day of the twelfth month in the “renwu” year (Jan. 25, 1043)

歐陽修 was ranked as one of the so-called eight master of Chinese
classical prose (唐宋八大家). He was a reformer in prose seeking to
loosen the bold of the ornate, euphonic style known as “parallel
prose”. His work was also more boldly personal, relaxed (“letting my
brush write what it would”), and conversational than that of his
predecessors, as one can see in “Pleasure Boat Studio”:

“...........I converted the rooms of the eastern wing into a place for me
to spend my leisure time. I named it “Pleasure Boat Studio”. The
studio is one room across and seven rooms long (the rooms being
connected by doorway), and so to walk into my studio is just like
walking into a boat. First, in a corner of the warm room I made a hole
in the roof to let in light. Then on either side of the bright and open
unwalled rooms I installed railings to sit on or lean against. Anyone
who relaxes in my studio will find that it is just like relaxing on a boat.
The craggy stone mounds and the flowering plants and trees that I
arranged just beyond the eaves on both sides make it seem all the
more that one is drifting down the middle of a river, with the
mountains on the right facing forest on the left, all very attractive.
This, then, is why I named my studio after a boat. ........................... .”


Yeh Tze

Old Trees And Their Tales

Old Trees And Their Tales


Old trees telling their stories

Last week we flew to the East Coast to celebrate our grandson's 5th
birthday. The birthday party was held at "Irvine Nature Center",
an environmental education organization. It was quite an educational
event for our grandson, and his friends who came to the party.



During this trip, our daughter took a day off from her busy work
schedule and drove us to D.C. for sightseeing. Although the Cherry
Blossom Festival was already over by then, we still enjoyed walking
under those "sakura" trees around the Tidal Basin and by the
Potomac River.



We also visited the US National Arboretum and observed the Chinese
art of Penjing (盆景) and Japanese art of Bonsai (盆栽) for the second
time.

The word "longevity" is often used to connote "long life", especially
when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than
expected, an ancient tree, for example.

The Oldest Bonsai


Japanese White Pine, 1625 (National Arboretum)

This Japanese White Pine (Pinus Parviflora 'Miyajima') Bonsai is
also known as "Hiroshima Survivor". According to the tree's display
placard, it has been "in training" since 1625. It survived a nursery
where the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and
belonged to one family for six generations prior to making its home
in the United States.

The Oldest Tree On Earth


White Mountains (From Molas' photostream, yahoo )

On the way home in the airplane, we had a great view of the White
Mountains over the border between Nevada and California, where I
have planned for years to visit personally and see those amazing
ancient Bristlecone Pine trees.



Methuselah (estimated germination 2832 BC) is a Great Basin
Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) in the White Mountains of
California, which was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957 by
Schulman and Harlan. It is the oldest known non-clonal organism
still alive, at the age of about 4,841 years old. It is the oldest known
individual tree in the world.

The tree is named after Methuselah, a Biblical figure reputed to have
lived 969 years. Located in the "Forest of Ancients" in the Methuselah
Grove at between 9,500–9,800 ft above sea level, its exact location
is currently undisclosed to the public as a protection against
vandalism. (Wikipedia)


Yeh Tze

"歲月痕跡" and "地老天荒"

Monument Valley

"歲月痕跡"

Aging is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over
time. Although mostly physical, the changes in humans are also
psychological and social.

In most cases, we can tell a person is old without asking his or her age
because we see the physical, psychological and social changes in that
person.

Many years ago, my spouse sent one of our family photos to a friend
of hers, whom we hadn’t seen for a long time. In her letter of reply,
she indicated to my spouse that she had noticed the “歲月痕跡 ” on
the face of her husband (me).

Several years ago, we were back in Taipei for a family visit. One day,
while I was just getting onto the bus, a young girl instantly stood up
and signaled me to take her seat. She obviously saw my “歲月痕跡 “,
despite the fact that I did not believe I was “老態龍鍾 “.

"地老天荒"

The aging process also applies to objects and nature as well.
For example, we can tell a house is old by its appearance, or its
“歲月痕跡 “, but how can you determine the age of a place in nature
or a landscape?

In the spring of 2006, we had a chance to cruise through the
American Southwest Desert. In Monument Valley, we experienced
the wonder of discovery among the buttes, mesa, canyons, and free
standing rock formation that fill Monument Valley.

It was said to be created as material eroded from the ancestral
Rocky Mountains, and was deposited and cemented into sandstone.
The formations we saw in the valley were left over after the forces
of erosion worked their magic on the sandstone. A geological uplift
caused the surface to bulge and crack. Wind and water then eroded
the land, and the cracks deepened and widened into gullies and
canyons, which eventually became the scenery we see today.


Monument Valley

Natural forces have “slowly” shaped the land over hundreds of
millions of years.


Yeh Tze

One Way Ticket

One Way Ticket

I heard this song during my early college years. A decade later, my
spouse and I bought "one-way tickets" and boarded CAL Flight CI
002 to the States.

The other day, I happened to see an old photo, which was taken at
Taipei 松山 International Airport almost four decades ago. In the
picture, I noticed my parents were much younger than we are now,
and at that time, we were younger than the age of our children.

In the late 60s and early 70s, many of our NTUMC68 classmates had
done the same as I did. However, years later, some of them left their
promising careers behind and again bought "one-way tickets" back
to their homeland, Taiwan.

They included: Drs. C.L.Lin, M.C.Lai, J.C.Yu and A.L.Yu. They are
the most dedicated and devoted professionals, who had decided to
return and offer their services to the motherland.

災難中激盪出的真情 (大林小鎮上的大醫院急診處)

Yeh Tze

春天吶喊

The Scream


Norwegian: "Skrik" by Edvard Munch 1893

The Scream (Norwegian: Skrik; created 1893-1910) is the title of
expressionist paintings and prints in a series by Norwegian artist
Edvard Munch, depicting an agonized figure against a blood red sky.
The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of
Ekeberg, in Oslo (then Kristiania), Norway.(Wikipedia)

春天吶喊（Spring Scream）



While the U.S. college students were spending their time in those
notorious Spring Break destination places such as Daytona Beach,
Florida, many of the Taiwanese youth enjoyed the “Spring Scream”
or “春天吶喊”, an outdoor music festival held each year at Kenting
(墾丁) in southern Taiwan, over the weekend.

Although I am not familiar with its activities, I have found its name
“春天吶喊” to be rather interesting. I suppose they screamed and
yelled while welcoming the arrival of spring and leaving the cold
gloomy months of winter behind. 春天吶喊喊很大!

爽要吶喊　不爽更要喊　壓力要甩　憂鬱要推翻
爽要吶喊　用力的吶喊　喊到流汗　喊到沒遺憾

Scream or 吶喊 is defined as “to utter a shrill, loud, piercing cry in
fright, pain, etc”, or “ to laugh loudly or hysterically”.

Primal Scream


Harvard student run tour "primal scream"

Screaming has been proven to drain stress levels. The "primal scream"
as it's often called, is one of many creative ways college students are
finding to blow off steam during one of the most stressful times, such
as the nights before exams, they've faced in their college lives.

College Confidential.com recently reported a list of
"The 50 Most Stressful Colleges":

Stanford is number 1 in overall stress, and Harvard and Princeton
share the number 1 spot in academic stress. The common perception
is that MIT and Caltech should be the most stressful, but they share
the number 4 spot, although still rank pretty high.


Yeh Tze

Lullabies

"You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song first recorded in 1939.
It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana as a result of
its association with former state governor and country music singer
Jimmie Davis. The song is copyright 1940 Peer International
Corporation, words and music by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell.
(Wikipedia)

It is also a happy song that is perfect to soothe the baby to sleep with
a message of love. The chorus makes a great baby song as well.
Lullabies are often sung by parents in calming children, putting them
to sleep, or simply spending time with them.

《You Are My Sunshine 》

You are my sunshine
my only sunshine

You make me happy
when skies are gray

You'll never know dear
how much I love you

Please don't take
my sunshine away

...................... .

April is National Poetry Month. While we were entering the month
of April, this poem “你是人間的四月天” came across my mind:

《你是人間的四月天 》

我說你是人間的四月天，
笑響點亮了四面風；清靈
在春的光艷中交舞著變。

你是四月早天裡的雲煙，
黃昏吹著風的軟，星子在
無意中閃，細雨點灑在花前。

那輕，那娉婷，你是，鮮妍。
百花的冠冕你戴著，你是
天真，莊嚴，你是夜夜的月圓。

雪化後那片鵝黃，你像；新鮮
初放芽的綠，你是；柔嫩喜悅
水光浮動著你夢期待中白蓮。

你是一樹一樹的花開，是燕
在樑間呢喃，——你是愛，是暖，
是希望，你是人間的四月天！

The poem was written by 林徽音, a noted 20th century Chinese
architect and writer. It had been said that she wrote this poem for
徐志摩 specifically. Others otherwise claimed that it was written for
her child. Nevertheless, 徐志摩, through the eyes of his 元配 (張幼儀),
was just an immature and spoiled rich kid.

I suppose, in some way, “ You Are My Sunshine” and
“你是人間的四月天” are both “Lullabies” for babies.




Yeh Tze