King Lear: Act II, Scene 4

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

啊！不要跟我說什麼需要不需要；最卑賤的乞丐，也有他的不值錢的身外之物；人生除了天然的需要以外，要是沒有其他的享受，那和畜類的生活有什麼分別。你是一位夫人；你穿著這樣華麗的衣服，如果你的目的只是為了保持溫暖，那就根本不合你的需要，因為這種盛裝艷飾並不能使你溫暖。可是，講到真的需要，那麼天啊，給我忍耐吧，我需要忍耐！神啊，你們看見我在這兒，一個可憐的老頭子，被憂傷和老邁折磨得好苦！假如是你們鼓動這兩個女兒的心，使她們忤逆她們的父親，那麼請你們不要儘是愚弄我，叫我默然忍受吧；讓我的心裡激起了剛強的怒火，別讓婦人所恃為武器的淚點玷污我的男子漢的面頰！不，你們這兩個不孝的妖婦，我要向你們復仇，我要做出一些使全世界驚怖的事情來，雖然我現在還不知道我要怎麼做。你們以為我將要哭泣；不，我不願哭泣，我雖然有充分的哭泣的理由，可是我寧願讓這顆心碎成萬片，也不願流下一滴淚來。啊，傻瓜！我要發瘋了！


James Earl Jones's breathtaking performance in the climactic confrontation of King Lear with his daughters in Act II Scene 4 of William Shakespeare's King Lear.

Fragment of a televised version of the 1974 New York Shakespeare Festival production in Central Park. Directed by Edwin Sherin.
Starring:
James Earl Jones ... King Lear
Lee Chamberlin ... Cordelia
Ellen Holly ... Regan
Douglass Watson ... Kent
Paul Sorvino ... Gloucester
Tom Aldredge ... Fool
Rene Auberjonois ... Edgar
Raul Julia ... Edmund
Rosalind Cash ... Goneril

*Full text for Act II Scene 4 here.
*《李爾王》全劇本中文版

Butoh

"The soul becomes ashes. Its breath spills down my body. I also breathe. My soul spreads out across the vast sky, then becomes ashes and falls." (Kazuo Ohno, translated by John Solt)

From the exhibition Min Tanaka - Between Mountain and Sea, the Yume-no-shima garbage dump, photography by Masato Okada.

"I am an avant-gardist who crawls the earth. I am a body with language. Language is symbiotic with the functions of the body. Dance comes into being between body and body, arising as a result of mental effort." (Min Tanaka)

"Once the dance begins, a place that one had believed familiar, a place nothing out of the ordinary, is transformed into a place of celebration. That’s because dance has the power to take us away from our everyday lives. If people can share that transformation, the dancer is admitted to the place; if not, he remains an interloper. So, in that instant when I begin to dance, I am open completely, more than even I can tell. Ideally, I am in a state in which I know exactly what to do, if I can just reach for it." (Min Tanaka)

"When Min Tanaka's body confronts the darkness of the camera, it disperses the light and confuses what we witness. It is an invitation to an expanded kind of perception, beyond the sense of vision. Some sort of 'primeval feelings' are being bared." (Masato Okada)

I first got to know Butoh as an artform when I read a book by Lin Hwai-Min, the artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. It was a collection of images of many forms of dance and included one of Kazuo Ohno. I later researched into Kazuo Ohno and was fascinated by him as a person and as an artist, although sadly never had the privilege to see him perform on-stage (I was a high school student in Taipei). Then when Japan's renowned Butoh group Sankai Juku toured Sadler's Wells Theatre in London (probably about 10 years ago) I went to the performance, and fell instantly and deeply in love. I have since seen them perform in London three times, including Toki a while ago, and every time the beauty and magic take my breath away.

For me, what distinguishes Butoh from other forms of dance is its highly philosophical approach and aesthetics, the heavy emphases on grace, strength and concentration (particularly on an abstract level), the focus on form and spirit as well as the transcendence and unity of both, and the meditative (in a way almost trance-like, albeit the contradiction to "meditative" this term might seem to bear) state of mind that it brings to the viewers. It requires just as much silent intensity and interpretative response from the audience to deliver and complete a brilliant Butoh performance.

Frances Barbe (lecturer of Dance and Theatre Studies at University of Kent) has written some very good articles on the developments of Butoh in Japan.


Kagemi, Sankai Juku; photographed by Chris Stewart for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Kagemi, Sankai Juku; photographed by Chris Stewart for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Kagemi, Sankai Juku; photographed by Jacques Denarnaud.

Dances at a Gathering through Gjon Mili’s Eyes

In March I went to see Royal Ballet’s revival of Jerome Robbins’s masterpiece Dances at a Gathering, an absolutely charming jewel which perfectly demonstrates the harmonious marriage of dance and music, as well as how simple dances (with brilliantly virtuosic steps nonetheless) can be profound and powerful. Set to solo piano works by Chopin, ten dancers explore the potential of dance itself through shifting relationships that also reflect the expressive moods of the music—at times playful and humorous, at times melancholic or romantic. The individuality of each dancer is at the heart of the creation of this ballet, and the result is such choreographic genius that is not only elegant but also refreshingly modern even to this day.

For a glimpse into this pure delight of a ballet, here are some dazzling images by the master and inventor of stroboscopic photography, Gjon Mili, for Life Magazine.

Cover photograph of Gjon Mili’s book, Gjon Mili: Photographs & Recollections, New York Graphic Society Books, 1980, Boston.

Multiple image of group of dancers in New York City Ballet’s production of Dances at a Gathering choreographed by Jerome Robbins, 1969.

Multiple exposure of Kay Mazzo and John Prinz in New York City Ballet’s production of Dances at a Gathering choreographed by Jerome Robbins, 1969.

Stroboscopic image of Anthony Blum, Patricia McBride, Sara Leland, Robert Maiorano and John Prinz (left to right) in New York City Ballet’s production of Dances at a Gathering choreographed by Jerome Robbins, 1969.

Multiple exposure of Kay Mazzo and John Prinz in New York City Ballet’s production of Dances at a Gathering choreographed by Jerome Robbins, 1969.

*More photographs by Gjon Mili on New York City Ballet’s production of Dances at a Gathering by Jerome Robbins here.

Pandora's Boxes

Beware, once these Pandora's Boxes are opened, the contents come into their own lives and it requires a great deal to remove oneself from the borderline hysterical/ecstatic state of endless perusal (provided that you are also part of this group of bibliophiles, vintage aficionados, aesthetes with an addictive personality, and ardent devotees to all the artistic or visual delights).

New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Flickr: The Commons
Mortimer Rare Book Exhibitions, at the Smith College Libraries & Collections
Staley+Wise Gallery: The Collection

Baika jô = The plum blossom album. (1808);
Artist: Okada, Baikan, 1773-1849

Ehon (Picture Books): The Artist and the Book in Japan
More than 1,000 images encompassing 1,200 years of Japanese book art, including Buddhist sutras, painted manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, calligraphic verse, and photographic books, with related drawings and woodblock prints. [From: NYPL Digital Gallery]

Smörkullen at Gullmarsberg at Gullmarsfjorden (Gullmar Fjord).
Smörkullen på Gullmarsberg vid Gullmarsfjorden.
Parish (socken): Skredsvik
Province (landskap): Bohuslän
Municipality (kommun): Uddevalla
County (län): Västra Götaland
Photograph by: Carl Curman/ Date: 1880s/ Format: Albumen print
Persistent URL; Read more about the photo database (in English)
From The Swedish National Heritage Board's photostream, at Flickr: The Commons.

View on the Tokaido beyond Odowara, Hakoni Mountains in the distance ([187-]).
Photographer: Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825
From: Asia and the Pacific Rim in Early Prints and Photographs, NYPL Digital Gallery.

Matsushima Inland Sea (Three View) (189-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

Chrysanthemum (189-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

A Forest (187-?-188-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

[Habitus Foeminarum Sinensium.] (1667);
alternative name: China monumentis
Author: Kircher, Athanasius, 1602-1680
From: Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis,... [NYPL Digital Gallery]

Ephemeral Stillness

I love the quietness in these photographs, a frozen moment of the interplay of light, time and space.

Girl at a Window, by Lady Clementina Hawarden, early 1860's.

This light-suffused study is more Impressionist in feeling than Pre-Raphaelite. Yet the combination of simple pose and an overt appeal to the imagination is also characteristic of the more intimate aspects of Pre-Raphaelism: Rossetti's drawings of Elizabeth Siddal are an obvious example. (source)

Clementina Maude, arms raised, 5 Princes Gardens; 
by Lady Clementina Hawarden.

Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, by Lady Clementina Hawarden.

Isabella Grace, 5 Princes Gardens, South Kensington (1864), by Lady Clementina Hawarden.

Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose, Paris (1911), by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Untitled (detail), by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Untitled, by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Dolores, by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Le comte Etienne de Beaumont, by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Julia Stephen at the Bear, Grindelwald, Switzerland, 1889.

This was Vanessa Bell’s favorite photograph of her mother. It was taken by Leslie Stephen’s friend Gabriel Loppé, the French painter of the high Alps. The subject is very reminiscent of the final scene in Virginia Woolf’s essay, 'On Being Ill' (1930). The essay ends with a description of the third Marchioness of Waterford gazing out the window on the day of her husband’s funeral. “She knew it before they told her, and never could Sir John Leslie forget, when he ran downstairs on the day of the burial, the beauty of the great lady standing to see the hearse depart, nor when he came back, how the curtain, heavy, mid-Victorian, plush perhaps, was all crushed together where she had grasped it in her agony.” [From Leslie Stephen's photograph album and epistolary memoir Mausoleum Book, source here.]

Vaslav Nijinsky in the ballet "L'après-midi d'un faune," photographed by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

The Kiss of Peace, by Julia Margaret Cameron (c.1869)

"A picture instinct with delicate observation, sweetness and refinement. One of the noblest works ever produced by photography."

～P. H. Emerson

Beatrice, 19th October 1870, by Julia Margaret Cameron 
(after Shelley's verse drama The Cenci).

*Today's music: Szymon Brzóska, discovered through Sutra, a collaboration between the composer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Orovela

The other day I discovered the most beautiful and spiritual song I have heard in a long time, completely by chance, on this website (wait for it to load and the music should start automatically). After consulting a friend and my very knowledgeable husband, we thought it could be in Georgian, and to quote my husband, "people there are known to be great singers". Indeed! And... the pièce de résistance... my beloved found out through a Georgian contact that it is a Georgian folk song, Orovela, from the Eastern Georgian province of Kakheti, by the great singer and teacher of traditional Georgian music, Hamlet Gonashvili (lots of incredible songs on this page - Orovela is the 5th on the playlist). Ah... this has completely made my day (and the whole of my weekend, as I will spend it exploring his music!).

Below are the lyrics for Orovela, and no I do not read Georgian! However, I found out some possible explanations on the meaning of the lyrics: two words are repeated throughout the whole song: [ari aralo]. The words refer to soil/ land/ god of soil/ productivity, in a symbolic sense. Georgian peasants used to sing this song when they were plowing land with oxen. Georgia was then pagan. [*Edit: On viewing the YouTube clip again, a translation into English has been suggested, as updated below. (via)]

ოროველა (Orovela) (title)


გადი გამოდი გუთანო,
Go there [and] come back here you plough,


ღირღიტავ ბანი უთხარო
Ghirghita tell[give] him a bass[voice]. (to give him a voice, help in singing)
("Ghrighita" - name of ox)


სახნის საკვეთო გაუსვი
Your plough cutter cut it [cut it plough-cutter] [line it, cut in line]


რომ კაჭაჭს ძირი უთხარო
To dig out a bottom to Kachach [weed] [to sap out, to undermine a weed]("Kachach" - a kind of weed)


შენი ჭირიმე გუთანო
Your pain to me plough [love you plough] ("Let your pain be mine," a Georgian phrase, similar to "I love you" or "my darling.")


მაგ შენი მრუდე ყელისა
[pain] Of that your curved neck


შენა ხარ პურის მომყვანი
You are the bringer[leader] of bread


დამძველებელი ქერისა
The grower[old] of barley (To olden a barley, oldener of barley)



The sound quality of the following two videos is not very good, but the advantage is that you see a great musician in performance.





*Photograph: At the Abano-pass: The gate to Tusheti coming from Kakheti, source here.

My Wedding Blessing

It will be the anniversary of my wedding blessing soon, on the 30th of June! I thought I would do a photo journal in celebration of the (approaching of the) event, with wonderful music which was handpicked by us and used in the ceremony. The wedding blessing and reception took place in my favourite area in London, the peaceful, shielded and hidden jewel—Temple Church and Middle Temple (do visit their websites for detailed history and some lovely photographs). Our wedding blessing is the most special and beautiful day of my life, and will always remain closest and dearest to my heart.

Sweet Avalanche roses and Sarah Bernhardt peonies. The seasons of these beloved flowers of mine (as well as Lily of the Valley of course) determined our wedding date.

Order of service booklets handmade by me from scratch—David and I even had to steam and adjust every vintage silk tassel! I chose the theme of fairytale silhouette art to match our wedding invitations.

Lily of the Valley whispers "the return to happiness." (Lily of the Valley was my only floral choice when it came to bridal bouquet, right from the beginning of my wedding planning. Its heady perfume is intoxicating—my friends said they could literally 'track me down' on the day following the scent...)

My wedding gown is an original antique dress made in 1912 from the Edwardian era (La Belle Époque), which is the period I love the most, sartorially speaking.

This is one of my favourite photos—taken next to the wonderful little garden of Inner Temple.

Entrance to the Round of the Temple Church.

To have and to hold, from this day forward,
for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer;
in sickness and in health;
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part,
according to God's holy law;
and thereto I give thee my troth.

The Temple Church Choir is an extraordinary chorale. We had the full choir for our blessing and the music was such that it simply transcended you to a different place—it shows how similar our aesthetic consciousness is to our spiritual consciousness. We selected Bach, Palestrina, plainsong and Maurice Duruflé (be sure to listen to the most beautiful anthems Ubi Caritas by Duruflé and Exsultate Deo by Palestrina.)

Lyrics for Ubi Caritas

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exsultemus et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Where there is affection and love, there God is.
The love of Christ has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and delight in him.
Let us fear and love the living God.
And from our hearts let us love each other sincerely.

Where there is affection and love, there God is. Amen.

Lily of the valley and roses...

The above two pictures are Peggy Porschen's exquisite creations (Peggy came to the venue on the day herself to deliver the cakes and arrange their display on my vintage mismatched china!).

Ladurée's gorgeous bespoke Ispahan cake made of rose petal macarons, rose scented cream, fresh lychee, raspberries and gilded with real red rose petals.

It took three people (two hairstylists and one assistant) over an hour to do my hair—my hair is so very long and I wanted a somewhat Romanesque, delicate updo featuring plenty of intricate plaits...

This is not just exquisite-looking, it tasted great too! Vanilla and chocolate marble cake with cream and almond marzipan... yum...

Our beautiful harpist Emma and I at the reception, Smoking Room, Middle Temple.

Hmmm... how can any girl not be happy with a perfectly pink slice of Ispahan cake?

This is my favourite corner in the Smoking Room (smoke-free of course!) at Middle Temple, with the bookshelf and fireplace.

David's toast at the reception, Parliament Chambers, Middle Temple.

My handmade invitations and order of service booklets along with some wedding souvenirs—photobooks which I edited myself including some of my favourite poetry and pictures of the special day.

On our honeymoon to the gorgeous Les Prés d'Eugénie in Eugénie les Bains, I discovered that this lovely painting in our room was also done in 1912, the same year my antique wedding gown was made. It was the best holiday I have ever had. :-)

More post-wedding souvenirs: this darling wedding cake topper of 18th-century bride and groom figurine is displayed on my grandparents' Japanese enamelled (?) little dishes.

*See a beautiful slideshow gallery by our wedding photographer here, and more pictures here.