I am interested in Japanese aesthetics. Lately I reading on two aesthetic concepts of this culture: ikki and wabi-sabi. Today I want to share something about the latter.
A risk of simplicity (I am not a specialist), wabi-sabi is imperfect, incomplete, full of melancholy and harmony in relation to its surroundings. Nothing lasts, nothing is done, nothing lasts forever. Examples include a Zen garden, a ruined castle, an ancient vase shows the passage of time on their walls. Kawabata's novels with his longing for a past time, that makes us realize what we lost and our mortality.
This sculpture of Ramses II, today in the British Museum, inspired the following poem Shelley (Shelley had not seen it, but I had heard news of his arrival). Imagine this statue hidden in the sand desert
, perhaps only appreciated the ritual beard of Pharaoh, or the proud nose sculpted by the wind. I think for a Japanese, would be wabi-sabi. I love the concept, I think that describes many interesting things. Does anyone think how we might speak in Castilian? Enjoy
Shelley.
Ozymandias (PB Shelley, 1818)
"I met a traveler came from a distant land.
said: Two vast legs of stone without the body
rise in the desert ... And nearby in the sand, half buried
lies a broken face, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and his disdainful grimace cold
domain show that the sculptor well those passions read
that remain, stamped on these lifeless things,
that mimicked hand, and the heart that sustained:
And on the pedestal these words are read:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works
, Mighty, and despair! "
Nothing else remains. About
decay of the colossal ruins, naked and unlimited
lone and level sand extends to the distance "
Gregorio Translation Díaz Ducca.
El original (para que apreciéis el ritmo):
"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level
sands stretch far away ".
The Japanese kanji or ideogram meaning wabi-sabi:
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