He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

[rasetsunyo]

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Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler

Comments

[flemmings]

Ohhh Alan Bates! Why did I never realize what a voice he has? (ETA: had. Didn't realize he died six years ago.) Because I don't watch movies, obviously.

But it was Gielgud who made me cry.

[rasetsunyo]

Yessss omg the Ulysses. ;__;

Another gem, Ying Ruocheng reciting Chapter 33 of the Tao Te Ching:

知人者智，自知者明。
勝人者有力，自勝者強。
知足者富。 強行者有志。
不失其所者久。
死而不亡者壽。

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.

Also, the chestnut <<登鸛雀樓>> Climbing Crane Tower by Wang Zhihuan:

白日依山盡，黃河入海流。
欲窮千裏目，更上一層樓

White sun rests on mountains - and is gone
Yellow River enters sea - and flows on
If you want to see a further thousand miles:
Climb another storey in the tower

(translation found through the invaluable Google Books: How to read Chinese poetry: a guided anthology by Zong-qi Cai)

[flemmings]

Ahh, thanks for the translations. I started watching his Desiderata and-- well, lessay I can't take Desiderata seriously. But his gestures in the Wang Zhihuan-- perfect!

How to read Chinese poetry is an amazing book. mvrdrk gave it to me for Christmas. A few pages of it always settles my stomach when I get to feeling antsy and futile.

[i_am_zan]

Oh ... but why don't WE get these ads!? These are beautiful. But then again ... I can see our average Joe LRD-er scratching their heads going "Eh! Why so cheem one!"

*HUGS* - thank you for sharing ... I'll have to seek them all out now. ^_^ Happy Easter dear. Hope your weekend was a good one.

[rasetsunyo]

Well to be fair I don't think UBS' target audience was the Average Joe LRD-er... the guy who came up with the ads said that it was a hit with its target audience, i.e. "the disgracefully rich" quote-unquote.

Also I think these were made some years back as some of the actors have since passed on.

*hugs* You're welcome! I had a great weekend, restful and full of geekiness. Hope yours was also excellent!

[feliciter]

Thank you for the links! I had almost forgotten these perfect performances. Especially Gielgud, Scofield and Ying.

(although someone in the ad agency either dropped the ball or slyly inserted Ozymandias in a campaign with the slogan Here today. Here tomorrow)

[rasetsunyo]

You're most welcome! :D It was pure serendipity, as these things always are.

(Haha I thought so too! And either UBS were really blur or the advertising guy had really good bullshitting skillz.)

[flemmings]

What struck me about the Ozymandias one is that Ben Kingsley bears a distinct resemblance to Ramses II, the original Ozymandias (= Usermaatre. /geekdom)