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Thursday 11 August 2011

On the birth of his son

Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.

Su Tung-p'o (A.D. 1036 - 1101)
Translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley.

5 comments:

rogerh said...

Interesting how sophisticated (in some ways) Chinese society was back then.

Demetrius said...

It would be interesting to see who was nominated in this category. I fear it would be a long list.

A K Haart said...

rogerh - it certainly seems well recorded compared to our history.

D - a very long list.

James Higham said...

Er ... nothing you wish to tell us, AKH? Not dropping hints?

A K Haart said...

JH - well spotted. There is a hint in there because I'm not entirely sure that an intellectual approach to life is likely to be the happiest or the most successful in a material sense at least.