This is a poem, Bamboo Departs the Pavilion 竹离亭, by Xue Tao 薛涛 who lived in Tang dynasty China.
She is probably the best well known female poet of that era and lived an interesting and independent life.
My translation of the poem:
Lush new stalks, four or five sprouts,
Often strong enough to support Autumn frost.
Naturally, Spring shoots drill mortar to rubble
...(I'm still working on the last line!)
My project aims to represent the experience I had soon after having studied this poem with my friend Ruth. I was walking down the ordinary Oxford street of terraced houses where I live and I noticed bamboo - that had been planted in the small front garden of a neighbour's house - shooting through the tarmac outside the garden and leaving small pieces of black rubble around on the broken pavement.
I found it extraordinary that a poem written 1200 years ago in a distant land should be so immediate to me here and now.
In order to represent this experience I have been working on the four characters 竹,钻,墙,破, which mean, respectively BAMBOO, DRILL/PIERCE, WALL/MORTAR & SMASH TO PIECES; it is worth mentioning that a Chinese character's meaning is usually indicated within it by a 'radical'. The radicals of 钻,墙,破 are respectively METAL, EARTH & STONE and I have been trying to use these materials in the art work.
She is probably the best well known female poet of that era and lived an interesting and independent life.
My translation of the poem:
Lush new stalks, four or five sprouts,
Often strong enough to support Autumn frost.
Naturally, Spring shoots drill mortar to rubble
...(I'm still working on the last line!)
My project aims to represent the experience I had soon after having studied this poem with my friend Ruth. I was walking down the ordinary Oxford street of terraced houses where I live and I noticed bamboo - that had been planted in the small front garden of a neighbour's house - shooting through the tarmac outside the garden and leaving small pieces of black rubble around on the broken pavement.
I found it extraordinary that a poem written 1200 years ago in a distant land should be so immediate to me here and now.
In order to represent this experience I have been working on the four characters 竹,钻,墙,破, which mean, respectively BAMBOO, DRILL/PIERCE, WALL/MORTAR & SMASH TO PIECES; it is worth mentioning that a Chinese character's meaning is usually indicated within it by a 'radical'. The radicals of 钻,墙,破 are respectively METAL, EARTH & STONE and I have been trying to use these materials in the art work.