https://fivewillowspoetry.blogspot.com/
Franz
Kafka (briefly) Interviews Tao Qian
Preamble:
Anywhere
there is water
There
I dip my line
Life
can reside in depths
Truth
is a bad deal, my friend,
It
ruptures the Bohemian night
Fuzzy
Wuzzy was he
But
logically he was not he
My
line drifts
Note:
Neither
Franz Kafka nor Tao Qian knew of each other nor cared about fame. And they
lived literally worlds apart in time and space. What follows is a brief
fictional interview:
F: Are you afraid of roaches?
T: Of the kind that moved about, only the kind
that moves in high places. I smoke them out.
They pass legislations and suddenly illegal
becomes legal, etc. They eat a meal, walk then as
far as half a block, and then eat another
meal.
F: I understand that you are a famous poet on
China. Is that correct?
T: Look at it this way, my friend, if you are a
successful traveling salesman of restaurant
cookware, then I am a poet who has
drowned himself many times in wine.
F: I understand you gave up a government post to
become a rustic farmer of chrysanthemums.
T: Yes, my friend, just as you prefer Prague
coffeehouses, I prefer anonymity amongst village
dung. Confucius said there is beauty in
all, except some fail to see it.
F: Thank you, my friend, I must go see my friend
Max now.
T: Good-bye, my
friend, when you come this way again, look for the house surrounded by five
willows.
Epilogue: Friends can be as eloquent as the long Great
Wall of China or as terse as a legal brief.
You can hear each murmur in a
crowded courtroom or the silence of a bamboo leaf.
-
Koon
Woon, March 6, 2020
.
