Amichai

Yehuda Amichai, in "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children," expresses a longing for peace. In "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children," it seems as that, to the poet, peace and happiness do not come from God but from the compassion between people. In fact, God is the symbol of peace and happiness in the poem. The line “God has pity on kindergarten children” (Amichai lns. 1) implies that children are happy because they are innocent and not influenced by hatred and greed. As they grow older, their minds become contaminated by thoughts of desires and possessions, thus happiness and peace are replaced by hostility, violence, and conflicts: “He has less pity on school children. / And on grownups he has no pity at all, / he leaves them alone, / and sometimes they must crawl on all fours / in the burning sand / to reach the first-aid station / covered with blood” (Amichai 2-8).            

Amichai goes on to offer a solution to end the suffering of adults: “But perhaps he will watch over true lovers / and have mercy on them and shelter them / like a tree over the old man / sleeping on a public bench. / Perhaps we too will give them / the last rare coin of compassion / that Mother handed down to us, / so that their happiness will protect us / now and in other days” (Amichai 9-17). Compassion is the key to reaching happiness and peace. God has no pity on grownups, but yet he has mercy on true lovers. Thus, the ones who love and sympathize are the ones who are watched over by God which implies that they are living in happiness and peace. The poet suggests that the key to peace and happiness lay within the soul of each individual but not the possession of worldly matters.

Works Cited

Amichai, Yehuda. “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children.” Trans. Stephen Mitchell. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1620-21. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

The Melancholy of a Married Woman

In Clarice Lispector’s “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman,” a woman’s mental struggle which sterns from being in an unhappy marriage is revealed through the revelation of the world in her mind. The woman in Lispector’s tale seemed to enjoy neither her familial life nor her role as a wife and a mother; when her children went to stay with their aunts, she lied in bed all day and night ignoring the household chores at home (Lispector 1556). Her interaction with her husband suggests that she didn’t marry him for love, and that narrator’s description of her thought confirmed that: “She was still in bed, peaceful and casual. She was in love…. She was anticipating her love from the man whom she would love one day” (Lispector 1556). To her, her marriage and her duties as a wife and a mother kept her trapped like a prisoner. Thus, she resorted to alcohol which allowed her mind to temporarily escape.

Lispector portrays in her tale a woman who enters into marriage with a man she doesn’t love for various possible reasons: “Oblique details and brilliant imagery suggest other dimensions to her life: the reasons for her misery and repressed rage, the choice that she has made while seeking security and protection, and the social conditions that foster such pitiable circumstances” (Simon 1555). Her reaction to the painting on the wall in the restaurant revealed her passion for art and suggested that she was deprived of the freedom to pursue goals that would bring her happiness: “When she gazed upon that picture which was so beautifully painted in the restaurant, she was immediately overcome by an artistic sensibility. No one would get it out of her head that she had really been born for greater things. She had always been one for works of art” (Lispector 1558). Her angry comment about the woman she saw in the restaurant serves perhaps as a reflection of herself before her marriage: “Bet you anything that she isn’t even married for all that pious look on her face … and that fine hat stuck on her head. A fat lot of good her hypocrisy would do her, and she had better watch out in case her airs and graces proved her undoing! The more sanctimonious they were, the bigger frauds they turned out to be” (Lispector 1558). Lispector’s tale reflects that marriage and family are not the only things that make women happy as expected in a patriarchal society.

Works Cited

Lispector, Clarice. “The Daydream of a Drunk Woman.” Trans. Giovanni Pontiero. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1555-60. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Neruda

            To Pablo Neruda, walking around in the city is an extremely painful experience; every view that comes into his sight causes him great pain as everything in the city reminds him of the sufferings of the poor: “Walking Around” demonstrates Neruda’s turn towards public subject matter—here expressed … as a description of urban life and the sufferings of the poor” (Simon 1422). In “Walking Around,” Neruda shows his contempt for urban life: going into tailor shops and movies makes him feel “all shriveled up, impenetrable, like a felt swan / navigating on a water of origin and ash” (Neruda lns. 3-4). Neruda doesn’t mention any people in his view which shows his feeling of isolation: he feels that he is the only one who sees (or chooses not to turn a blind eye to) the correlation between capitalism and the sufferings of the poor. His rejection of the urban life which is dominated by materialistic gains is expressed clearly as he wrote: “The smell of barber shop makes me sob out loud. / I want nothing but the repose either of stones or of wool, / I want to see no more establishments, no more gardens, / nor merchandise, nor glasses, nor elevators” (Neruda 5-8).

            There is also a shift in Neruda’s attitude towards the urban life; it goes from passively moaning for to actively standing up against what he believes is wrong. At the beginning of the poem, he feels that the view of the city makes him feel despair and powerless: “It happens that I am tired of my feet and my nails / and my hair and my shadow. / It happens that I am tired of being a man” (Neruda 9-11). Then, his decision to stop being a part of what he believes is wrong is shown when he wrote that “I do not want to be the inheritor of so many misfortunes. / I do not want to continue as a root and as a tomb, / as a solitary tunnel, as a cellar full of corpses, / stiff with cold, dying pain” (Neruda 22-25). The last stanza shows his determination to end the sufferings of the poor: “I stride along with calm, with eyes, with shoes, / with fury, with forgetfulness, / I pass, I cross offices and stores full of orthopaedic appliances, / and courtyards hung with clothes on wires, / underpants, towels and shirts which weep / slow dirty tears” (Neruda 40-45).

Works Cited

Neruda, Pablo. “Walking Around.” Trans. W. S. Merwin. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1423-24. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Gender

            How gender is presented in Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’s “The Rod of Justice” differs greatly from many of the nineteenth-century literature. While the female characters from the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Higuchi Ichiyo still battle with the injustice imposed on women in patriarchal cultures, Machado’s Sinha Rita is powerful and possess the power to control in front of men.

            What enables Sinha Rita to have such power which rivals that of men is her financial independence: “Sinha Rita made her living, for the most part, by teaching lacemaking, drawn work, and embroidery” (Machado 912). Her financial independence makes her threat to leave Joao Carneiro plausible as she can make a living on her own. Another thing that grants Sinha Rita power over men is her being in a relationship with them. It is obvious that Sinha Rita is willing to help Damioa not because she is kind and generous, but because she enjoys controlling and manipulating her man, and, most importantly, proving her power over the man whom she is in a relationship with. She never reasons with Joao Carneiro but only pushes him to comply by speaking in a commanding tone and threatening to end the relationship. Damiao is also forced to yield to her when she commands him to hand over the rod to her so that she can beat Lucretia with it. Damiao blames himself for Lucretia’s delay and wants to protect her, but considering that Sinha Rita is the only one who can possibly save him from the plight he is in, he chooses to comply despite his conscience. Sinha Rita is eager to establish her authority over the people around her, and the most convenient and effective way to do so is to utilize her relationships with others.

Works Cited

Higuchi, Ichiyo. “Separate Ways.” Trans. Robert Lyons Danly. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 973-979. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria. “The Rod of Justice.” Trans. Helen Caldwell. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 911-916. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Tagore, Rabindranath. “Punishment.” Trans. William Radice. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 964-970. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Whitman and Dario

            The similarities between Walt Whitman and Ruben Dario can be noticed when observing their reactions to things in nature. They used nature as a contrast to the human suffering to express that the cause of the suffering of mankind laid within their own mind.    

            Whitman insisted on “a vehemently democratic kind of verse” (Simon 646) and it is reflected in his poem as he wrote: “I am of old and young, of foolish as much as the wise, / … Stuffed with the stuff that is coarse and stuffed with the stuff that is fine, / One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same” (Section 16 lns. 1-5). As he observed animals in nature, he came to admire what he noticed in them: “I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained” (Section 32 1). He then stated that he could look at the animals for a long time because “They do not sweat and whine about their condition, / They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, / They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, / … No one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth” (Section 32 3-8). Whitman criticized the self-righteousness and greed of mankind which caused their own suffering. Animals, on the other hand, are content with what they possess and their place on earth, thus they do not suffer as humans do.   

Dario had a similar reaction when facing nature: “The tree is happy because it is scarcely sentient; / the hard rock is happier still, it feels nothing” (lns. 1-2). However, to Darios, the tree and the hard rock are happy because “there is no pain as great as being alive, / no burden heavier than that of conscious life” (3-4). Dario stated that the suffering of mankind came from their awareness of the uncertainty of fate and death. Knowing that death was inevitable to all living things, Dario was strongly disturbed by the fact that one could not predict when it would happen: “To be, and to know nothing, and to lack a way, / and the dread of having been, and future terrors … / And the sure terror of being dead tomorrow, / and to suffer all through life and through the darkness, / and through what we do not know and hardly suspect …” (5-9). Unlike Whitman who thought that suffering could be stopped if people could simply be content, Dario believed that suffering came with the consciousness that humans possessed, thus it would remain until death arrive.

Works Cited

Dario, Ruben. “Fatality.” 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 695. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Whitman, Walt. Section 16. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 649-50. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

---. Section 32. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 651-52. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

An Essay on Man

To Alexander Pope, understanding why evil and disorder exist is not important. Pope believes that how the universe works is beyond men’s ability to understand, and those who believe that all things are created for the sake of men and attempt to interpret what they cannot understand are merely driven by pride: “Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, / Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. / Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, / Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel: / And who but wishes to invert the laws / Of ORDER, sins against the Eternal Cause” (Pope lns. 125-130). As Pope “moves among voices and viewpoints, he comes to the conclusion that although we cannot see it, the universe works according to a design that is good” (Simon 89): “All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee; / All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see; / All Discord, Harmony not understood; / All partial Evil, universal Good” (Pope 289-92). Thus, Pope suggests that we cast all doubt and submit to the Providence, for men are just a part of the universal system which they are not able to fully understand.

Pope was very wise in composing his argument from different perspectives, for it supports his idea of that men are not superior to other beings which is, to Pope, essential to accepting (but not understanding) the existence of evil and disorder. His argument is persuasive but not believable in my opinion. In the beliefs of Buddhism and Daoism, evil is imposed on a person for what she/he has done wrong in the past or the previous life. Thus, evil can be stopped if one is willing to let go of grudges and hatred. Pope’s approach to the existence of evil is passive. He encourages people to accept the existence of evil because it is beyond men’s ability to understand. However, he does offer a way to minimize the possibility of evil in men by insisting that men should never allow their pride to take control.

Works Cited

Pope, Alexander. An Essay on Man. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 90-97. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

De Marguerite

Marguerite de Navarre ridiculed men’s obsession with women’s appearance in the Heptameron. In his sonnets, Francis Petrarch continuously praised the beauty and appearance of his beloved Laura giving no attention to her inner virtues: “Thus we shall then together see a marvel—our lady sitting on the / grass and with her arms making a shade for herself” (Petrarch lns. 9-10). De Navarre, on the other hand, showed her contempt for men’s shallowness towards their relationship with women in the Heptameron.  

Bornet’s wife, upon finding out that her husband was plotting an affair with their maid, tricked her husband and taught him a lesson. Bornet’s wife showed her husband how his mind was clouded by the thoughts of lust when she said: “You must have been blinded by desire to pay such tribute to my body—after all you’ve had me long enough without showing much appreciation for my figure. So it wasn’t because that young girl is so pretty and so shapely that you were enjoying yourself so much” (de Navarre 1645). She proved to her husband that the appearance of women would not affect the pleasure men obtain from sex by taking the place of the maid on their date without her husband knowing. Thus, men who used women’s appearance as their excuse for cheating on their wives were merely driven by lust, for Bornet failed to differentiate the body of his wife from that of the young maid. A greater punishment of embarrassment was delivered to the unfaithful husband at the end of the story as “[t]he husband was branded as a cuckold without his wife having done a single thing to disgrace herself” (de Navarre 1645).

Works Cited

De Navarre, Marguerite. Heptameron. Trans. P. A. Chilton. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1640-1647. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Petrarch, Francis. Sonnet 34. Trans. Robert M. Durling. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1622. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Sunjata

The bride-carrying ceremony described in Sunjata seems to hint at a sense of taming the shrewdness of the bride. Sogolon is portrayed as weak as she enters the village of her future husband: “They saw that her walk could not improve, / That it was beyond her power” (Sunjata lns. 764-65). As the co-wives start carrying her, her freedom of movement is deprived from her. The co-wives also insult her along the way as they sing: “‘The heron-head oooh. / Our heron-head has come this year, / Heron-head. / The woman’s heron-head has come this year with / her crest’”(Sunjata 780-84). As Sogolon is carried to her husband’s chamber, he is able to counter every one of her attacks, thus makes her surrender and submit to him.

In Sunjata’s bride-carrying ceremony, the bride seems to be the subject of ridicules and disempowerment. Sogolon is ridiculed for her appearance and her husband is ready and equipped to claim dominance over her on their wedding day. Brides’ experience in Taiwan’s wedding ceremony is quite different from that of Sogolon. In Taiwan, a bride is considered to be the most beautiful person on her wedding day and her husband must be able to overcome some obstacles before he can escort her home with him. The bride will wait for the groom in her room while the bridesmaids set up a few challenges for the groom to overcome, and he must solve the problems before he is allowed to get to his bride. The groom then asks for his bride’s permission to take her home with him. Unlike Sogolon’s passive role, the brides appear to have a certain level of control over the situation on their wedding day in Taiwan although it is merely ceremonial.

Works Cited

Sunjata: A West African Epic. Trans. David C. Conrad. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1517-76. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Basho

Each poem of Matsuo Basho creates a visual image in the reader’s head when reading them. Haikai poets “pioneered a new style in writing prose essays … and they produced striking in paintings, which are as sparsely and poignantly sketched in ink as haikus are sketched in words” (Simon 321). The works in The Narrow Road to the Deep North were composed by Basho along his journey and inspired by the things which the poet witnessed and experience on his trip. The visual elements which inspired Basho are transferred to his works which evokes the reader’s envisioning of images; when reading the verses “Time even for the grass hut / to change owners— / house of dolls” (Basho 325), a mental image of a grass hut with dolls inside of it emerged.

Basho was inspired by nature and objects which were visible and tangible to him. The emotion of the poet is never directly expressed in the works; they are reflected in the themes or motions that the poet selected to portray in his works. Basho’s grief for parting is shown after being able to stand in the shade of the exact willow which was the subject of the poem of a celebrated poet before his time as Basho wrote: “Whole field of / rice seedlings–I part / from the willow” (328). Basho was an expert in selecting the elements and objects from the view before him which convey his emotion and experience to the reader. Upon hearing the story of the “Mottling Rock,” the poet saw the villagers planting the rice seedlings, thus wrote: “Planting rice seedlings / the hands—in the distant past pressing / the grass of longing” (Basho 326).

Works Cited

Matsuo, Basho. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Trans. Haruo Shirane. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 324-36. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Classic of Poetry

         The interactions between and the emotions of men and women in love are vividly portrayed in many of the poems in the Classic of Poetry, such as “Fishhawk” and “Dead Roe Deer.” The poems aimed to teach men and women of young age the proper attitude and appropriate behavior when facing the temptation of desire. “Fishhawk” introduces to the audience a lad who is tormented by his love and desire for a gentle maiden who is pure and fair. The young man suffers because he cannot have the maiden whom he so desires: “Wanting, sought her, had her not, / waking, sleeping, thought of her, / on and on he thought of her, / he tossed from one side to another” (“Fishhawk 9-12). Although he is tormented by his desire for this beautiful girl, he cannot have her because his moral sense does not allow it. He sees her as a “fit pair for a prince [junzi]” (“Fishhawk” 4) which shows that he identifies himself as a junzi.  Thus, he follows the appropriate way to pursue the girl: “Gentle maiden, pure and fair, / with harps we bring her company. / … Gentle maiden, pure and fair, / with bells and drums do her delight” (“Fishhawk” 15-20). “Dead Roe Deer” describes the interaction between a gentleman and a beautiful maiden. The gentleman tries to seduce the maiden by offering her the meat of a roe deer. The maiden is pleased, for her heart is “filled with spring” (“Dead Roe Deer” 3). However, when the man tries to cross the boundary, she tactfully rejects him by warning him about the cur. Although the maiden’s feeling towards the man is mutual, she refuses to act against the moral principles.

            The shortcoming of some of the poems in the Classic of Poetry is that they can be interpreted very differently in terms of rhetoric. Although Confucius saw high moral values in the poems, not every individual could learn moral lessons from the poems. The vagueness in some of the poems also contributes to the open interpretation of them. The last stanza in “Dead Roe Deer,” for example, can be read as the maiden’s tactfully rejecting words to the gentleman, but it can also be read as flirting words. Thus, in order to draw moral concepts from the poems, one must keep in mind to apply the idea of virtues on the poems.

Works Cited

“Dead Roe Deer.” Trans. Stephen Owen. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 761. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

“Fishhawk.” Trans. Stephen Owen. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 759-60. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Somadeva

            In Somadeva’s “The Red Lotus of Chastity,” the virtuous wife, Devasmita, disguised herself as a merchant in order to save her husband. The necessity of Devasmita’s disguise presents the strict role of women inside and outside of the home in India’s classical age. Devasmita was able to, without having to transform herself, fend off the three scoundrels as well as the deceiving nun who attempted to violate her chastity inside her room. She was wise, for she did not fall for the deception of the immoral nun. She was powerful, for she was able to fight off those who attempted to conduct a dishonorable act in her room. However, Devasmita began to worry about the life of her husband who was staying in a distant island. Thus, being inspired by the story of Saktimati who disguised herself to save her husband, Devasmita dressed herself and her maid as merchants and went on her journey to rescue her husband. Upon arriving on the island, Devasmita successfully prevented the three scoundrels, whom she encountered in her room, from inflicting revenge on her husband. In the process of saving her husband which took place outside of her home, Devasmita had to disguise herself as a man in order to carry out the task successfully.

            In “The Red Lotus of Chastity,” disguising as a man serves as the method of gaining power for women outside of the realm of home. Devasmita’s story shows that women, however powerful and wise, would need to resort to the identity as a man by disguise in order to achieve their goals which require actions outside of their homes which affirms the domestic role of women in the classical age of India.    

Works Cited

Somadeva. “The Red Lotus of Chastity.” Trans. J.A.B. van Buitenen. Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1274-1279. Print. Vol. 1 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.