I'm sure you have all been following the case in the news but I just wanted to write the words because they sound so much like the title of a novel. In fact the whole thing is the stuff of novel.
It is conceivable that you have all been so engrossed in the tennis that I have an excuse to mention the affair on this blog.
It is also conceivable that you may have missed the problem solving cockatoo, So I'll take the opp to add that too. It is rather extraordinary and raises some interesting questions about the nature of intelligence. To call someone bird-brain is now something of a compliment.
The word cockatoo comes from the Malay and is a corruption of kakak tua, older sister.
As in this little song that you all know, because I've mentioned it so many times before.
All together now!
Burung Kakatua
Hinggap di jendela
Nenek sudah tua
Giginya tinggal dua
Trek dung trek dung Trek dung olala
Trek dung trek dung Trek dung olala
Trek dung trek dung Trek dung olala
No need to translate, you all know it is about Granny and her teeth.
The bird's name was Pipin and all it got for its trouble was a lousy half a cashew nut!
Jill bach, thank you for asking for the poem, here it is:
( And as a small gift, the one on his baldness too. You can see why I like this poet!)
On Being Sixty
–Confucius said that it was not till sixty that "his ears obeyed him".
Between thirty and forty, one is distracted by the Five Lusts;
Between seventy and eighty, one is prey to a hundred diseases.
But from fifty to sixty one is free from all ills;
Calm and still–the heart enjoys rest.
I have put behind me Love and Greed; I have done with Profit and Fame;
I am still short of illness and decay and far from decrepit age.
Strength of limb I still possess to seek the rivers and hills;
Still my heart has spirit enough to listen to flutes and strings.
At leisure I open new wine and taste several cups;
Drunken I recall old poems and sing a whole volume.
Meng-te has asked for a poem and herewith I exhort him
Not to complain of three-score, "the time of obedient ears."
Chinese; trans. Arthur Waley
[52] ON HIS BALDNESS[ a.d. 832]
At dawn I sighed to see my hairs fall;
At dusk I sighed to see my hairs fall.
For I dreaded the time when the last lock should go ...
They are all gone and I do not mind at all!
I have done with that cumbrous washing and getting dry;
My tiresome comb for ever is laid aside.
Best of all, when the weather is hot and wet,
To have no top-knot weighing down on one’s head
!I put aside my dusty conical cap;
And loose my collar-fringe.
In a silver jar I have stored a cold stream;
On my bald pate I trickle a ladle-full.
Like one baptized with the Water of Buddha’s Law,
I sit and receive this cool, cleansing joy.
Now I know why the priest who seeks Repose
Frees his heart by first shaving his head.