Poetry and/against War

Nefarious War

L
Li Po -- 701-762 CE

I know the original of "Nefarious War." The last part of the poem reads like this:

Nai zhi bing zhe shi xiong qi
Sheng ren bu de yi er yong zhi.

Does it mean the same thing? Is the translation accurate? I am amazed that you found this poem in your collection, but in Chinese. Thanks Satt, for sharing!


Here is a sad song from the Civil War...

The Cruel War

1. The cruel war is raging,
Johnny has to fight.
I long to be with him
From morning 'till night.
I want to be with him,
It grieves my heart so
Won't you let me come with you?
No, my love, no.

2. Tomorrow is Sunday,
Monday is the day
That your captain will call
You and you must obey
Your captain will call you,
It grieves my heart so
Won't you let me come with you?
No, my love, no.

3. I'll tie back my hair,
Men's clothing I'll put on.
I'll pass for your comrade
As we march along.
I'll pass for your comrade,
No one will ever know
Won't you let me come with you?
No, my love, no.

4. Oh Johnny, oh Johnny,
I feel you are unkind
I love you far better
Than all of mankind
I love you far better
Than words can e'er express
Won't you let me come with you?
Yes, my love, yes.

5. They marched into battle,
She never left his side
'Til a bullet shell struck her
And love was denied.
A bullet shell struck her,
Tears came to Johnny's eyes
As he knelt down beside her,
She silently died.

How about a prayer against war?
. . . or more precisely a:

"Prayer for World Peace"


Great God, who has told us
"Vengeance is mine,"
save us from ourselves,
save us from the vengeance in our hearts
and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,
to punish as we have been punished,
to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes
to listen rather than to judge,
to trust rather than to fear,
to try again and again
to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace
to be our best selves.
We ask for the vision
to be builders of the human community
rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people
to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.
We ask for the love it takes
to bequeath to the children of the world to come
more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes
to care for all the peoples
of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israel
as well as for ourselves.

Give us the depth of soul, O God,
to constrain our might,
to resist the
temptations of power,
to refuse to attack the attackable,
to understand
that vengeance begets violence,
and to bring peace - not war - wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.
For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful
and patient
and gracious
and trusting
with these others who you also love.

This we ask through, Jesus
the one without vengeance in his heart.
This we ask forever and ever. Amen.
(by Joan D. Chittister, OSB)


Reprinted with permission from Pax Christi USA
www.paxchristiusa.org

No wonder, I have the complete collection of the Tang poetry in the original language (in nine hundred volumes, edited in the Qing dynasty period).
I won't say whether the translation has the same meaning as the original, as a translated poem can have its own life.

Jjorge -- That is a beautiful prayer and written from the depths of a poet's soul, I think. A great addition to this thread and very effective, thank you. I wonder how many people know what OSB means -- Order of St. Benedict. A Catholic order for both men & women. Although this is not their most important function, it is an order known for silence. I am glad Joan wasn't silent for this, her words are powerful: "The acid in our souls," "constrain our might," "bring peace wherever we go."


Satt -- A Treasure! Nine hundred volumes? All poetry? Pei tiao!*

*Did that make sense? (An abundance to view... )

900 volumes! wow!

Yes, nine hundred volumes. It is counted in the classical way of binding books. China has a long history of printing and binding of books (nearly a thousand years).

Li Po Poems & Notes

Wow Piffka! You're really getting into it aren't you?

What, Jjorge? Don't you like that poem? I'm amazed at the modern attitude towards war from China nearly 1500 years ago. Apparently, back then, they also fought too much. These Taoists... they got it together early.

Piffka..
The note you added to Li Po's verse is very interesting to read.
According to a footnote in the book at hand which was written in the Qing dynasty era, the river translated as "Garlic River" was probably meant to be the Tarim river from the Pamir range, and the battle of the Taras River (west to Pamir) referred in your Note is very famous in history.
The verse refers to a very wide range, which is not totally an exaggeration but probably symbolic here.
The book Tao Te Ching is said to be written by Lao-zi, and here are multiple lines which have been taken from classical writings, but the knowledge of which is not necessary in reading this verse.

The spent shell from the sharpshooters rifle came to be a ladybugs new home.

Oh, quite the contrary Piffie. I liked it very much!


satt

It's fascinating to learn about China and Chinese poetry.

We Americans are woefully ignorant of China.




Algis

Nice line. Is it yours?

jjorge..
Outside the world of words, there is not such a thing as the number "two" or the entity "Americans." Only individuals exist.

satt
A pretty thought, and true in many respects.

Our moral responsibility is ours alone, and our mortality certainly is.

Still, without universals, without species and genus, definitions and generalization, the world would be unknowable.

Algis -- Cool Poem! A nice juxtaposition of a spent casing shell and a lady bug. Thanks for adding it!

Jjorge & Satt -- That note... I confess, I did not write it. I was in a rush and meant to add a link and make it clear that it was not my own. I'm sorry that I made you think it was mine even for an instant. Normally I would have put it in smaller type and then you'd have known. For that mistake, my most humble apologies. (I wish I could be so erudite!) It was from this website...
http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Webworks/Website/AllwaterLiPo.htm

Here is Book 1, Part XXXI of the Tao Te Ching, which was referenced in the last Li Po poem. This is from Peter Merel's interpretation:

31. Armies
Armies are tools of violence;
They cause men to hate and fear.
The sage will not join them.
His purpose is creation;
Their purpose is destruction.

Weapons are tools of violence,
Not of the sage;
He uses them only when there is no choice,
And then calmly, and with tact,
For he finds no beauty in them.

Whoever finds beauty in weapons
Delights in the slaughter of men;
And who delights in slaughter
Cannot content himself with peace.

So slaughters must be mourned
And conquest celebrated with a funeral.


I'm going to add Part XXX, as well. It is so appropriate to our current state of war:

30. Violence
Powerful men are well advised not to use violence,
For violence has a habit of returning;
Thorns and weeds grow wherever an army goes,
And lean years follow a great war.

A general is well advised
To achieve nothing more than his orders:
Not to take advantage of his victory.
Nor to glory, boast or pride himself;
To do what is dictated by necessity,
Not by choice.

For even the strongest force will weaken with time,
And then its violence will return, and kill it.

Tao Te Ching Text

The Tao Te Ching was edited in the Warring States period of China (475~221 BCE), when there was no true peace.

Piffka

I liked those very much, especially 31.

That chapter (ch. 31) was probably written by multiple persons.
I mean, footnotes could have been mixed into the text.