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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.
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5 comments:

  1. rogerh11 August 2011 at 11:24

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

    ReplyDelete
  2. Demetrius11 August 2011 at 14:01

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

    ReplyDelete
  3. A K Haart11 August 2011 at 17:34

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

    D - a very long list.

    ReplyDelete
  4. James Higham11 August 2011 at 20:09

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

    ReplyDelete
  5. A K Haart12 August 2011 at 17:31

    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.

    ReplyDelete

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