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TheGreatValette
1 month ago
Malta

About

28 - world traveller - artist - student - history lover - writer of poetry. I love life - it's too short and too precious to waste time on bullshit. Life, art, and writing should be approached with your all or not at all.

I am in love with China, and the 16th Century.

Poetry is life
and all of life is poetry.

Interests
The river, writing, nature, travel, history, film, the blues, beer

Favorite Books
The Great Siege: Malta 1565, 100 Poems from the Chinese, Sacramental Acts, God's Battalions, Empires of the Sea

Favorite Authors
Kenneth Rexroth, DuFu, LiBai, YuXuan Ji, LiQing Zhao, Ernle Bradford, Herodotus, Roger Crowley

Favorite Movies
Blade Runner, The Thin Red Line, Drive

Favorite TV Shows
Battlestar Galactica, Hannibal, Game of Thrones

Favorite Music
Muddy Waters, Magic Man, U2, Third Eye Blind, Lord Huron
View all

Xi Shi's Ghost

Xi Shi was the first of the Four Ancient Beauties of China

Two thousand years ago There was a woman of exceptional beauty, So exceptional, the legend goes, That whenever she looked At her reflection in a pond, The fish would forget how to swim, And sink down into the darkness. Two thousand years later, I have forgotten how to live, Crushed by a vision of her ghost.

We boil spring water to make tea, Sitting on a grassy knoll above the water.The waterfall continues as it has always done,Ten thousand years with little change.How many lovers have sat as we have,Happy and content above this spring?I'm a cautious man,But this woman's a water dragon.She takes off all her clothes,And leaps in from our heights above.AD 865