|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Sestina:
Here In Katmandu
We
have climbed the mountain.
There's nothing more to do.
It is terrible to come down
To the valley
Where, amidst many flowers,
One thinks of snow,
As
formerly, amidst snow,
Climbing the mountain,
One thought of flowers,
Tremulous, ruddy with dew,
In the valley.
One caught their scent coming down.
It is difficult to adjust, once down,
To the absense of snow.
Clear days, from the valley,
One looks up at the mountain.
What else is there to do?
Prayer wheels, flowers!
Let
the flowers
Fade, the prayer wheels run down.
What have they to do
With us who have stood atop the snow
Atop the mountain,
Flags seen from the valley?
It
might be possible to live in the valley,
To bury oneself among flowers,
If one could forget the mountain,
How, never once looking down,
Stiff, blinded with snow,
One knew what to do.
Meanwhile
it is not easy here in Katmandu,
Especially when to the valley
That wind which means snow
Elsewhere, but here means flowers,
Comes down,
As soon it must, from the mountain.
Donald
Justice
[ Download
ebook ]
|
|
|
Situated
on the Arasur hill near Mount Abu, Ambaji is
one of the most important places of pilgrimage in
Gujarat because of the famous temple of goddess Ambaji,
also known as Amba Bhavani or Arasuri.
It is the principal shrine of the goddess in Gujarat
and its actual origins are still unknown. The fact that
this temple does not have an idol is indicative of it
antiquity, since the worship of images of deities became
popular much later.
Built
of the finest quality of marble, the temple of Ambaji
is recognised as one of the original Shakti Pithas where,
according to the ancient Scriptures, the heart of the
goddess Ambaji fell to earth when her body was dismembered.
The deity in the temple is represented not by an idol
but by a triangular Vishwa Yantra, inscribed with figures
and the syllable 'Shree' in the centre. During the holy
month of Bhadrapad, devotees trek hundreds of miles
on foot to reach the temple by Bhadrapad Poonam.
In
the vicinity are the well-known Jain Temples of Kumbharia
and Gabbar, a steep hill whose peak bears the footprints
of the goddess.
|
|
|
 |
Donald
Justice was born in Miami, Florida, in 1925. He
studied musical composition with Carl Ruggles at the
University of Miami, and graduated from there with a
BA in English in 1945. After obtaining an MA from the
University of North Carolina (later, The University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Justice spent a year
studying with Yvor Winters at Stanford. He then went
on to obtain a PhD at the University of Iowa. Justice
is the author of several books of poems, principal amongst
them: The Summer Anniversaries (Wesleyan University
Press, 1960), Night Light (Wesleyan University
Press, 1967), (Departures (Atheneum, New York,
1973) Selected Poems (Atheneum, New York, 1979),
The Sunset Maker (Atheneum, New York), 1987,
New and Selected Poems (Knopf, New York, 1997)
and Orpheus Hesitated Beside the Black River: Poems
1952-1997 (Anvil, London, 1998). He has also published
collections of essays and edited several books of poems.
Justice is the recipient of numerous honours and awards,
including Guggenheim and National Endowment for the
Arts Fellowships, and the Pulitzer and Bollingen Prizes.
In 1992 he was elected a member of the American Academy
and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1997 he was
elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
|
|
|
|
