
By Still Waters (1906)
The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)
By Still Waters (1906)
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Context: Where the ring of twilight gleams
Round the sanctuary wrought,
Whispers haunt me — in my dreams
We are one yet know it not.
Some for beauty follow long
Flying traces; some there be
Seek thee only for a song:
I to lose myself in thee.
"Deer Fence" (鹿柴), trans. Burton Watson
Variant translations:
No one is seen in deserted hills,
Only the echoes of speech is heard.
Sunlight cast back comes deep in the woods,
And shines once again upon the green moss.
Translated by Stephen Owen
On the empty mountain, seeing no one,
Only hearing the echoes of someone's voice;
Returning light enters the deep forest,
Again shining upon the green moss.
Translated by Richard W. Bodman and Victor H. Mair
Quote in: Ali Rahnema An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati. (2000), p. 258
Rahnema commented that "Shariati did not believe he had any chance of returning to Ershad and evaluated his situation in a poetical and macabre fashion".
“As the sun came up, we/saw the leaves peer out, shivering.’ ( Letter from the Hills )”
St Cyril Road and Other Poems (2005)
“It takes a long time for the gleam in the eye to turn into something solid.”
As quoted in "Howard Hodgkin: the later, greater Hodgkin" by Karen Wright, in The Telegraph (5 April 2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3672299/Howard-Hodgkin-the-later-greater-Hodgkin.html