Mysterious Cocoon

There are plenty of curious cocoons in Autumn. In Wangling park there were several of these on the vines: I wonder what they might be?

Creative Genius

[...[  creative literary genius does not principally show itself in discovering new ideas; that is rather the business of the philosopher: the grand work of literary genius is a work of synthesis and exposition, not analysis and discovery; its gifts lie in the faculty of being happily inspired by a certain intellectual and spiritual atmosphere, by a certain order of ideas, when it finds itself in them; of dealing divinely with these ideas, presenting them in the most effective and attractive combinations, —making beautiful works with them, in short.

Matthew Arnold, 'The Function of Criticism at the Present Time', in Essays by Matthew Arnold including Essays in Criticism, 1865 On Translating Homer (With F.W. Newman’s Reply) and Five Other Essays now for the first time collected (London: Oxford University Press, 1914): pp. 9-36 (p. 12).

Verdict of History

There is no ‘verdict of history,’ other than the private opinions of the individual. And no one historian can possibly see more than a fraction of the truth; if he sees all sides, he will probably not see very deeply into any one of them.

George Macaulay Trevelyan, ‘Clio, A Muse’, in Clio, a Muse, and Other Essays (London: Longmans, Green and co., 1949; 1913), pp. 140-176 (pp. 172-73).

Male Blue Pansy

Male Blue Pansy (Junonia orithya, 翠蓝眼蛱蝶).

It is the time of year when may junonia start appearing. The upper side of its wings are more colorful with its black and blue markings, but even with its wings closed, it is a substantial-looking butterfly.

Mesembrius Bengalensis

Mesembrius bengalensis (斑腹粉颜蚜蝇).

There are many bees and hoverflies enjoying the flowers by the river. I have seen mesembrius peregrinus in Changsha by the river but have not managed to photograph one, yet. I am pretty certain this is in the same genus, possibly mesembrius bengalensis, but I am not certain.

Great Poets

Great poets seldom make bricks without straw; they pile up all the excellencies they can beg, borrow, or steal from their predecessors and contemporaries, and they set their own inimitable light atop of the mountain.

Ezra Pound, The Spirit of Romance. Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, 1952; 1910), p. 162.

Asiatic Wishbone Flower

Asiatic Wishbone Flower (Torenia asiatica, 光叶蝴蝶草).

Today we picnicked in a forest meadow: there were many hopping insects (mostly crickets and grasshoppers) and small hopping frogs. Looking around in the grass there were also many of these small creeping herbs in flower.

Fairy Paper

 Emily had discovered that she possessed this odd knack when she was six. By a certain movement of her eyes, which she could never describe, she could produce a tiny replica of the wallpaper in the air before her—could hold it there and look at it as long as she liked—could shift it back and forth, to any distance she chose, making it larger or smaller as it went farther away or came nearer. It was one of her secret joys when she went into a new room anywhere to “see the paper in the air.” And this New Moon paper made the prettiest fairy paper she had ever seen.

L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon (London: Harrap Books, 1977; 1928), p. 50.

Translation is Not Quite Impossible

Translating is not quite impossible. But it is damnably difficult. And that is why , as has been said by others, the good translator of poetry is a rarer apparition even than the good poet.

Donald Davie, 'The Translatability of Poetry', The Listener, 78 (28 Dec. 1967): 838-840 (p. 840).

Female Tropical Fritillary

Tropical Fritillary (Argynnis hyperbius, 斐豹蛱蝶). Female.

A few weeks ago I saw a great many tropical fritillary caterpillars: now the butterflies are out in full force.

Metoeca Foedalis

Metoeca foedalis (污斑纹野螟).

Through a lot of trial and error I am trying to improve my skills at photographing very small subjects. One early result is this common pearl moth: it ranges across Africa, southern Asia, Australia and has been introduced to South America, though this one here was ranging no farther than around a cluster of shrubs in urban Changsha.

The Power of Song

carmina uel caelo possunt deducere lunam,
carminibus Circe socios mutauit Vluxi,
frigidus in pratia cantando rumpitur anguis.

Songs can pluck the moon down from the sky, through song Circe transformed the companions of Ulysses [into swine], and through singing, the snake, cool in the meadow, is burst asunder.

Virgil, Ecl. VIII.69-71. My translation.

I Have Always Liked Trains

    I have always liked trains. The old ones were the best, of course, their soot-black engines venting bursts of steam and chuffing links of stylised white smoke, and the carriages rattling and yawing and the wheels violently clanging—so much might and effort, yet producing such a gay and toy-like effect. And then the way the landscape seemed to rotate like a vast, slow wheel, or to keep opening like a fan, and the telegraph wires dipped and slid, and birds flew past the window backwards, slowly, effortfully, like so many discarded bits of black rag.

John Banville, Ancient Light (London: Viking, 2012), p. 187.

Grass Yellow

A common sight in Autumn in Changsha. It could be terias hecabe (宽边黄粉蝶) or eurema mandarina (北黄粉蝶): both species are apparently present in Hunan and they are not clearly distinguishable from any clear morphological characteristics.