poetry

Naimisha Forest

All Categories: trump(14) usa(11) pandemics(11) identity politics(8) race(8) elites(8) democracy(8) immigration(7) conservatism(7) fiction(7) clintons(7) nation(7) internet(7) american history(7) politics(7) china(7) film(7) media(6) india(6) globalization(6) britain(5) statistics(5) africa(5) macroeconomics(5) nation state(5) style(5) europe(5) historicism(5) poetry(5) religion(5) ethnicity(5) revolution(4) communism(4) photographs(4) development(4) big tech(4) music(4) populism(4) globalism(4) scientific method(4) marx(3) african americans(3) science(3) political philosophy(3) liberalism(3) crime(3) racism(3) silicon valley(3) economics(3) military(3) culture(3) sports(3) sanskrit(3) world economy(3) international trade(3) law-and-order(3) charles dickens(3) slavery(3) markets(3) free speech(3) e-commerce(3) homer(2) family(2) innovation(2) comedy(2) feminism(2) obama(2) essays(2) women(2) iran(2) tradition(2) urban(2) monopoly(2) epic(2) national liberation(2) evolutionary psychology(2) karl popper(2) state(2) law(2) monetary policy(2) stock market(2) diplomacy(2) edmund burke(2) institutions(2) james joyce(2) multiculturalism(2) moral philosophy(2) nationalism(2) disasters(2) minorities(2) logic(2) nafta(1) mahabharata(1) probability(1) working class(1) guns(1) antitrust(1) churchill(1) inequality(1) fiscal policy(1) foreign policy(1) blockchain(1) j.m. keynes(1) epistemology(1) civil liberties(1) genetics(1) william hazlitt(1) oligarchy(1) bitcoin(1) borges(1) rural(1) afghanistan(1) lincoln(1) art(1) social media(1) islam(1) emotions(1) machiavelli(1) caste(1) trust(1) taiwan(1) nihilism(1) managerial expert class(1) anti-semitism(1) tom wolfe(1) new journalism(1) switzerland(1) buddhism(1) philosophical history(1) hegel(1) industrial policy(1) libertarianism(1) language(1) marriage(1) poverty(1) political correctness(1) dance(1) russia(1) journalism(1) bubbles(1) manias(1) cliodynamics(1) alt-right(1) regressive left(1) theater(1) united nations(1) mexico(1) charles darwin(1) mathematics(1) adam smith(1) zimbabwe(1) fdi(1) game theory(1) home

'Laughing in shy confusion'

This selection of ‘Poems from the Sanskrit’ was a favorite among a group of friends, well, a while ago. On hot summer afternoons, after lectures, we would sit in one of the Silvrback blog image cool stone alcoves that ran on one side of the college courtyard, boys and girls, and read aloud these poems, with many a smile and warm glance exchanged, . . .

Posted in: india poetry sanskrit

January 05, 2018

Rain, falling or fallen

Jorge Luis Borges: The Rain (1960)

Silvrback blog image Quite suddenly the evening clears at last...
as now outside the soft small rain is falling.
Falling or fallen. Rain itself is something
. . .

Posted in: borges poetry

December 06, 2017

The Cloud Messenger

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai is hosting a ‘Festival of Premiering Plays’, one of which, ‘I, Cloud’, by the Story Circus theatre company, I like especially for the inspiration it takes in Kalidasa, the supreme figure in classical Sanskrit literature.

The setting for . . .

Posted in: india poetry sanskrit theater

December 01, 2017

late sunlight enters the deep wood

Silvrback blog image Deer Park

Empty hills, no one in sight,
only the sound of someone talking;
late sunlight enters the deep wood,...
shining over the green moss again.

Wang Wei (700-761 AD). Translated Burton . . .

Posted in: buddhism china poetry

November 20, 2017

The Boundless Bright Air

An unforgettable moment in the Iliad comes at the end of Book 8. Having beaten back the Greeks after a day of hard fighting, the Trojans determine to camp on the battlefield and press home their attack the next morning - unsuspecting that the gods have already fated them to ultimate defeat. Weary but exultant, the Trojans

. . .

Posted in: epic homer poetry

November 09, 2017