Yesterday's Poetry Fishbowl had a fascinating theme: 'Influential women'. A series of prompts combined in inspiring ysabetwordsmith to write Rarely Well Behaved .

While I like her work and I get her point, I must admit that I have trouble with the last verse, because, well one can be a good girl and sit at the loom because she doesn't know any better, but one can ( Read more... )

As you may know, a few prompts bouncing back and forth between thesilentpoet , ysabetwordsmith and myself started a conversation that originated the Silk Road Allies alternate history project. The project now has a community on Live Journal for discussions, sharing of resources, communal world-building and posting of 'in setting' material (including a couple of new poems of ( Read more... )

Thinking of Home While on a Mission in the West (1)

This morning, wild geese went East,

At dawn they broke my sleep.

Restless, I can’t dream again,

Alone, I think of Chang’an (2).

(1) Anonymous poem found in the archives of the Chinese embassy in Italy.

(2) Chang’an (长安 ‘Perpetual peace’, modern day Xi’an 西安 ‘Western peace’), was the capital of more than ( Read more... )

had been close allies for about 2000 years, how would world history be different?

A few days ago ysabetwordsmith left a prompt to thesilentpoet:

In 97 AD, Chinese General Pan Chao sent an embassy to the Roman empire, but little came of it. Suppose China and Italy had united, how would that change things?

This poem was the result, outlining a whole timeline. If you know me you ( Read more... )

Read The Treasures of Marco Polo a poem by ysabetwordsmith based on my prompt about some objects Marco brought back from his travels and their possible history and significance.

The objects are real and documented, the poem is part of an alternate history series in which China and Italy have been closed allies for about 2000 years because they are two of the many ( Read more... )

Today I had my last encounter with students taking part in my 'Mille Gru' (senbatsuru) school activity.
The thing is split in two two-hour 'labs', as we call them. In the first I introduce the life of Sasaki Sadako and a bit of origami history, then teach them how to fold origami cranes, with the aim to send a senbatsuru (a garland composed of 1000 ( Read more... )

But this time the whole ballad...

木 兰 辞
Mulan ci

唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织。
Jiji fu jiji, Mulan dang hu zhi.
不闻机杼声，唯闻女叹息。
Bu wen jizhu sheng, wei wen nü danxi.
问女何所思？问女何所忆？
Wen nü he suo si? Wen nü he suo yi?
女亦无所思，女亦无所忆。
Nü yi wu suo si, Nü yi wu suo yi.
昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵，
Zuoye jian juntie, kehan da dian bin,
军书十二卷，卷卷有爷名。
Jun shu shier juan, juan juan you ye ming.
阿爷无大儿，木兰无长兄，
Ah ( Read more... )

This is another of my favorite Chinese poems (actually the first stanza, but I want to translate it in full).

It is older than the Tang, in fact it dates from the Northen Wei dinasty (386-534 AD) although the original collection it was part of is lost, and the ballad survived in another, much later, opus. I find it remarkable in many ways.

木 兰 辞
Mulan ( Read more... )

Even since I was little I've been fascinated by myths and legends about the old gods, not so much by  the
Greek and Roman ones, though. With the exception of Athena I didn't really connect to them.
I fell immediately in love with the Norse and Germanic pantheons, specifically with the figure and the legends surrounding the One-eyed, Woden.

From the ( Read more... )

...I should learn to keep pen and paper in my room at night, at least when a verse won't let me be I won't have to roam though the house to be able to write it down.
This is the result of last night's roaming, 'The Frog Bride' (or ' The Frog Princess', it was one of my favorite fairy tales, as a child).
As with 'On the run'  comments are really ( Read more... )