Cloud Poetry

Biblical, ancient, historical sacred texts from dead and living civilizations

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Excerpts from medieval Japanese author and Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283-1352) Essays on Idleness, or Tsurezuregusa.

Atmosphere. A familiar yet extremely vague phenomenon The term atmosphere has its origin in the meteorological field and refers to the earth's envelope of air which carries the weather. It is only since the 18th century that it has been used metaphorically, for moods which are "in the air", for the emotional tinge of a space. Today this expression is commonly used in all European languages; it no longer seems artificial and is hardly even regarded as a metaphor. One speaks of the atmosphere of a conversation, a landscape, a house, the atmosphere of a festival, an evening, a season. The way in which we speak of atmospheres in these cases is highly differentiated - even in everyday speech. An atmosphere is tense, light-hearted or serious, oppressive or uplifting, cold or warm. We also speak of the atmosphere of the "petty bourgeoisie", the atmosphere of the Twenties, the atmosphere of poverty. To introduce some order into these examples, atmospheres can be di- vided into moods, phenomena of synaesthesia, suggestions for motions, communicative and social-conventional atmospheres. What matters is that, in speaking of atmospheres, we refer to their character. With this term character we already bring our understanding of atmos- pheres close to the sphere of physiognomics and theatre.

The Book of Psalms, commonly referred to simply as Psalms, the Psalter or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and thus a book of the Christian Old Testament. The title is derived from the Greek translation, ψαλμοί, psalmoi, meaning "instrumental music" and, by extension, "the words accompanying the music".[2] The book is an anthology of individual psalms, with 150 in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern Christian churches.

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Li Po (Chinese, 701-762 AD) wrote dream poems depicting spiritual journeys, sometimes making his countrymen forget their problems in unthinking garity, and for such joyful escapism was criticized by his peers and later, Communists. He was explicitly anti-Confucian in his thought and behavior, expressing his admiration for the man of impulse over moral and intellectual qualities (such as patient literary scholarship) most admired in the Confucian ttradition. In his youth, he lived for a time as a sworded wandering gallant. Here the poems are read from Arthur Cooper’s translations.

1. 永鹅 Ode to the Goose by 骆宾王 Luo Bing Wang (640-684 AD), 2. 静夜思 Thoughts in the Silent night by 李白 Li Bai (701-762 AD), 3. 悯农 Toiling Farmers by 李绅 Li Shen (772-846 AD), 4. 春晓 Spring Morning by 孟浩然 Meng Hao Ran (689-740 AD), 5. 七步诗 Seven Steps Verse by 曹植 Cao Zhi (192-232 AD)

A collection of Confucius’ (551-479 BC) sayings expressing a moral code by which he believed everyone should live and upon which the official government examinations were based. In order to meet his moral responsibility, he believed, a man must think for himself.

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Baudelaire in French and English

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The Roman Elegies (originally published under the title Erotica Romana in Germany, later Römische Elegien) is a cycle of twenty-four poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

They reflect Goethe's Italian Journey from 1786 to 1788 and celebrate the sensuality and vigour of Italian and Classical culture. Written mainly after his return to Weimar, they contain poems on many sexual themes.

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Litany in Time of Plague, When I consider how my light is spent, The Sick Rose, A Birthday