Flower, Why Are You In The City of Man? (繁市中的花儿)

I've had enough time to...   lament for the flowers in the City of Man

Taken from a moving vehicle in the City of Yangon, Myanmar

Flower in the city

You are out of place

You do not belong here

Among rusty and stainless steel

The sun burns you

The night offers no sleep

You are valued only for your freshness

But your freshness doesn’t keep

The city sucks all vitality

The remains to the rubbish heap

This is the way the city lives

您孤立此地

此处非你所属

在钢铁与锈之间

烈日噬干您

入夜不得眠

鲜绿是您所有

奈何不持久

城市吸走您的生命力

残骸归废墟

这就是繁市生活之道

The fields and the mountains

They are so far away…

Flower, why are you here -

In the city of man?

田野与山丘

遥不可及

花儿啊，你为何身在此处

在人群的市中

(Many thanks to a dear friend for the translation into Mandarin)

The Back of A Business Woman is Made of Steel.

I've had just enough time to...  admire the back of strong women.

Taken on the strong back of a business woman in the fruit market in Hanoi.

An old bicycle

A few plastic pots hanging

A metal rack

Holding a few green plants

She is in business.

The back of a business woman is made of steel.

Another strong back and strong shoulders too. Can you carry those weights throughout the day?

Her back may have bended double from age and weight over the years but hers is the strongest back of all for she carried her entire family on it. And she is still doing it.

Zen and the Art of Motocycle Appreciation.

I've had just enough time to...   ride with the wind.

Taken on the Jakarta highway to the North.

I've noticed that people who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this... that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. They associate metal with given shapes... pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts... all of them fixed and inviolable, and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry work or forge work or welding sees "steel" as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Robert M. Pirsig

_____

What you see is steel.
What he sees is infinite

Shapes waiting to be.

_____

What you see is a motorcycle

What he sees is something indescribable

Something like - love or Zen.

A Game of Thrones.

I've had enough time...   to be arrested by the intrigues of swords.

Taken at home

 

What painful sacrifices

For the coveted throne.

Only to discover,

The great discomfort

Of sitting on cold, hard steel.