TRINPsite: 'Request' (poem).

Tong/ThL/ Poems/Request.HTM

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REQUEST

Please, tell them they too are persons of this planet,
attached to the right and content with the wrong.
Awaken them to what past is to be cherished,
what future to be presently nourished.

Remind them who are the humans of the middle,
whose greatness lies in too much, nor too little,
whose blood is that of farmers and other workers,
whose children may become artists or scientists.

Some said that wisdom came in a strange way,
that it was brought by a river horse one day;
that a nine-hued phenix, the most brilliant of birds,
was the wellspring of the rhythm of these words.

Some put hippos on their altars and prayed
that she might bear a child to all as dear as jade,
that boiled unicorn horns and avian bills
would make their kind immortal and free from ills.

Remind them what saddens those of humanity
who are enlightened by natural humility^*,
who shun false illusion and haughty exclusion,
who help to found the good norms on the ground.

Please, show them, don't shout it out, how to improve
by sharing values, by dropping disvalues.
Softly lead them from the old to be abolished,
safely, to the new to be now embraced.

[Show form analysis]

Request consists of six stanzas of four lines each. The stanzas form pairs from the middle to the beginning and to the end, that is, the 1st and the 6th, the 2nd and the 5th and the 3rd and the 4th stanzas belong together. In This Language the lines vary in length from 10 to 12 syllables.

A pattern of line-initial alliteration (some of it a repetition of whole words) and line-final or line-internal (half-)rime is maintained in all stanzas. Line-final rime is only consistently applied in the central (3rd and 4th) stanzas.

|T| Please, tell them they too are persons of this planet, [12]
|T| attached to the right and content with the wrong. [11]
|W| Awaken them to what past is to be cherished, [12]
|W| what future to be presently nourished. [10]

|M| Remind them who are the humans of the middle, [12]
|H| whose greatness lies in too much, nor too little, [12]
|H| whose blood is that of farmers and other workers, [12]
|H| whose children may become artists or scientists. [11]

|S| Some said that wisdom came in a strange way, [11]
|DH| that it was brought by a river horse |W|one day; [11]
|DH| that a nine-hued phenix, the most brilliant of birds, [12]
|W| was the wellspring of the rhythm of these words. [10]

|S| Some put hippos on their altars and prayed [11]
|DH| that she might bear a child, to all as dear as jade; [12]
|DH| that boiled unicorn horns and avian bills [11]
|W| would make their kind immortal and free from ills. [11]

|M| Remind them what saddens those of humanity [12]
|H| who are enlightened by natural humility, [12]
|H| who shun false illusion and haughty exclusion, [12]
|H| who help to found the good norms on the ground. [10]

|SH| Please, show them --don't shout it out-- how to improve [11]
|SH| by sharing values, by dropping disvalues. [11]
|S| Softly lead them from the old to be abolished, [12]
|S| safely, to the new to be now embraced. [10]

[Show explanation]

Vinsent Nandi
62.NEY-NLY

For the twin version of this poem in Zhezhong Yuyan see Qingqiu.
It was inspired by an eighty years older work, entitled "Qidao" ("Prayer").
Further information, and another poem in This Language, can
be found at https://mvvm.net/Tong/ThL/Poems/RivHorse.HTM.

* This is not the humility of one person towards another person,
but the humility towards nature as opposed to supernaturalist arrogance and pretense.
(When it is opposed to haughtiness in a social context,
the people of the middle are neither humble nor haughty.)

printing this color on white

©MVVM, 62-79 ASWW

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