Eliot Weinberger
From “The Life of Tu Fu”
Eliot Weinberger. On Berlin's Klosterstrasse, where he was presenting his book "Cascaden" at the Literary Salon. May 17, 2003 / Qalam/Legion
One of Qalam's primary aims is to illuminate and explain our world by exploring various historical and cultural phenomena. In this section, we have decided to do without unnecessary words and familiar comments. What you will encounter here are fragments of verses collected from different eras and parts of the world. These speak for themselves and are notably beautiful to us.
I thought of the passage in Confucius where a pheasant on a bridge in the mountains sniffs three times and then flies off. No one has ever understood what that means.
I thought of General Yin Hao, who lost a battle and was demoted to a commoner. He spent the rest of his days writing the same two characters over and over in the air with his finger: how strange.
Eliot Weinberger (born 1949) is an American poet, essayist, and translator.