These thoroughly grounded pieces, Andrew, remind me of Rewi Alley, a NZer I used
to hear a lot about when I was young, a guy who spent decades in China teaching,
founding and running technical schools somewhere in China, and publishing
booklets of his diary poems via a little leftwing press in NZ...
best from Max
Quoting andrew burke <[log in to unmask]>:
> *Linfen bricolage*
>
>
>
> The buildings outside our door which
>
> create our courtyard and badminton court
>
> are being gutted
>
> windows partitions old chairs
>
> brick walls floor tiles
>
> everything up and out
>
> demolished each day
>
> from dawn to dusk with
>
> hand hammers and chisels
>
> sledge-hammers and drills
>
> walls now gape like skulls
>
>
>
> In the dust and rubble
>
> a workman with his Mao cap on
>
> back of his head
>
> hammers old nails into
>
> demolition wood to
>
> create his own ladder -
>
> a ragged 'z' pattern between
>
> two pieces of wood nailed in
>
> at an angle as each new step -
>
> nothing 'true' but
>
> his spirit was on the level:
>
> *waste not, want not*
>
>
>
> As I pass I smile
>
> and tap a step -
>
> 'Solid!' I say. 'Ni hao'
>
> he grins and replies
>
> in a Linfen dialect
>
> of dust and stoicism
>
>
>
>
>
> *Duet*
>
>
>
> As I walked out late yesterday
>
> along the campus road to the gate
>
> among pedestrians going
>
> both ways hither and thither
>
> I heard a trained cultured voice –
>
> male, operatic –
>
> singing quietly to itself,
>
> 'Maria, Maria' then Mandarin lyrics.
>
> I couldn't understand
>
> so I asked him 'You sing "Maria"?'
>
> He shook his head wildly.
>
> I said, 'You know, "Maria" from
>
> *West Side Story* ...' he shook
>
> his head some more – so I sang on
>
> and he joined me and we sang
>
> down the road to the gate,
>
> my English 'Maria' and his Chinese song.
>
> At the gate, between smiling sentries,
>
> I tapped him on the shoulder and said,
>
> 'Same melody has got me thinking
>
> it's the same bloody song, pal!'
>
------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
|