Author | Lightnews

Graham Sanders (he/him)

@gmsprof.bsky.social

410 followers 180 following 220 posts

Professor of classical Chinese literature at the University of Toronto, among other pursuits. 若復不為無益之事則安能悅有涯之生？“Without trivial pursuits, how can we enjoy a life that must end?”

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Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

We are all, ultimately, alone and vulnerable in the vastness of natural forces, seeking refuge in a circle of light, and finding comfort in reaching out to others who share that experience with us. In the closing couplet, Han Yu asks, “How is it that...?”—his poem is an answer to that question.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

I think it is the mark of great art that it repays whatever amount of effort you put into interpreting it. This poem speaks to what we used to call the “human condition”. It is what the kids these days call “relatable”.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The closing couplet switches register to a conversational tone, as the poem moves from the world of a lone consciousness in nature to communication between two fellow travelers, who find themselves reminded of how far they are from the security of home.

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Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The lamp inside produces a gentle and comforting vision with its warm halo of light, small and circumscribed; the rain in the fading darkness outside impinges on that interior, vulnerable coziness with a feeling of vast and implacable cold.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The ensuing line of this parallel couplet juxtaposes “night fading” and “dream awakening” as two related time markers, and the “lamp emitting a halo” with “the rain bringing a chill” as two descriptions of inanimate (are they?) objects performing actions.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

When Han Yu rouses from his dreamy, hypnagogic state, the tumultuous, moonlit visions in his mind’s eye are replaced by the serene image of a dim lamp casting a halo of light in his room.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The froth on the whitecaps could appear to be flakes of frost buoyed up by the water. In the dreamscape of his imagination, sky and river merge, liquid and frozen water coexist—everything is mixed up and in motion.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The POV switches in the second couplet from inside/auditory to outside/visual in the eye of Han Yu’s mind. Imagining what the rushing water looks like under the bright moon, the light playing across the currents could be mistaken for reflected streaks of lightning.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The second line takes us inside to the human perceiver, Han Yu in bed, listening to the sound of the rushing water outside, first ebbing away, then rising again in an endless cycle. The natural world is oblivious of him, time flows on unceasin; his own life is a small current in that larger flow.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

The first line of the poem opens with doubled reduplicative compounds that do not so much describe the torrent of water outside where Han Yu is sleeping as capture it in language that mimics the unending flow itself, its persistence and power.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 19d

I’ve been thinking a lot about this poem since I translated it. It is a short, powerful snapshot of a perceiving mind away from home. (Han Yu was moved around a lot because of the vicissitudes of his political career.)

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · 20d

This #poem came up during my grad seminar on Tang #poetry, and I decided to take a crack at a #translation. Han Yu (768–824) was fond of writing in a looser ancient style, but this piece is a rare example of his using the later regulated style of four couplets of five-syllable lines.

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Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Mar 10

This is one of the best political speeches I have heard in a long time. Mark Carney is not a firebrand, and his French is mediocre, but I wholeheartedly agree with everything he has to say here about Canadian values (currently under threat from US aggression)...

youtu.be/Qv6JIMtX8Qc?...

FULL SPEECH: Carney addresses Canadians as new Liberal leader and PM-designate

YouTube video by CBC News

youtu.be

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Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Mar 2

Mental health break with the #guqin #古琴...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b6Q...

水仙操 (L'immortel des eaux) (The Immortal by the Water)

YouTube video by 蘇思棣 (Sou Si-tai) - Topic

www.youtube.com

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Mar 2

I found a break from the bleakness in this #poem: “The City Limits” by AR Ammons (1926–2001).

consider the radiance...
...each is accepted into as much light as it will take

#poetry #solace #light

The City Limits

A. R. Ammons 1926–2001

When you consider the radiance, that it does not withhold
itself but pours its abundance without selection into every
nook and cranny not overhung or hidden; when you consider

that birds’ bones make no awful noise against the light but
lie low in the light as in a high testimony; when you consider
the radiance, that it will look into the guiltiest

swervings of the weaving heart and bear itself upon them,
not flinching into disguise or darkening; when you consider
the abundance of such resource as illuminates the glow-blue

bodies and gold-skeined wings of flies swarming the dumped
guts of a natural slaughter or the coil of shit and in no
way winces from its storms of generosity; when you consider

that air or vacuum, snow or shale, squid or wolf, rose or lichen,
each is accepted into as much light as it will take, then
the heart moves roomier, the man stands and looks about, the

leaf does not increase itself above the grass, and the dark
work of the deepest cells is of a tune with May bushes
and fear lit by the breadth of such calmly turns to praise.

From The Selected Poems: 1951-1977, Expanded Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 1986 by A. R. Ammons.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Mar 2

Useful. Thanks!

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 25

Oops. That cocktail picture came out blurry. Here is a better version...

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

BONUS FALLACY

And the prize for most widespread and profoundly damaging fallacy goes to...

21/20. Correlation Equals Causation

It does not.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

20/20. Poisoning the Well

Presenting information in a way that is intended to discredit or undermine an argument, rather than addressing the argument itself.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

19/20. Appeal to Consequences

Arguing that a statement is true or false based on its consequences, rather than its actual truth or falsity.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

18/20. Shifting Burden of Proof

Shifting the burden of proof from one party to another, often unfairly.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

17/20. Appeal to Ignorance

Assuming that because something has not been proven false, it must be true.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

16/20. Appeal to Tradition

Arguing that a practice or belief is valid because it has been done a certain way for a long time.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

15/20. Narrow Definition

Defining a term or concept so narrowly that it excludes counterexamples that actually exist.

Graham Sanders (he/him) @gmsprof.bsky.social · Feb 24

14/20. Equivocation

Using ambiguous language to obscure or distort the meaning of an argument.