Gothic Pews

It has been a long time since I blogged about anything gothic! I was going to make up for this by writing about some high gothic ladies’ fashion from the era of darted hoods, three-foot-long sleeves and wimples. Unfortunately when I looked up “gothic ladies” on Google image search all sorts of crazy pictures came up. The things which I have seen have left me baffled, scared, and riled up. I am abandoning gothic ladies fashion until some indeterminate point in the ambiguous future and seeking something safer. Chastened, I present you with a small gallery of gothic benches and church pews.

Carved American Gothic style oak bench circa 1910

Medieval-style pine bench

French Gothic Church Bench Solid Oak Turn of the Century

Gothic Settle

Antique French Gothic Hall Bench

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A poem by Tang master Du Fu

An artist’s interpretation of what Du Fu might have looked like (there are no original portraits)

April is poetry month and, to celebrate, here is a poem by the great Tang dynasty poet, Du Fu (712–770).  Du Fu was the son of a minor scholar-official and he dedicated his youth to the rigorous study of Confucian philosophy, history and poetry.  However, when the moment of truth came, Du Fu failed the civil service examination despite his tremendous erudition.  This failure stunned Du Fu (and every subsequent generation of Chinese scholars) to such an extent that many suggest the Tang-era test was crooked.  The rest of Du Fu’s life he moved from place to place trying to find a place to fit in after failing the one thing that mattered.  His final years were spent struggling to survive the cataclysmic events of the An Lushan Rebellion (which devastated China and left huge swaths of the population dead).

Du Fu’s life does not sound like the model of happy success, but history judged him very differently.  Although his work was initially dismissed and garnered little attention even in the era immediately after his death, in remained in circulation and then suddenly began to grow in popularity.  Each generation regarded it more highly than the previous and it became worked into the aesthetic and philosophical framework of Chinese society. Today Du Fu’s works of poetry (from across all classical Chinese genres) are among the most famous works of Chinese literature.  His poetry has had a unique seminal influence on almost all subsequent poetry and he has been canonized as one of the greatest Chinese writers.

Here is a short poem which demonstrates the austere vigor of his pen.  Notice how much longer the English version is than the Chinese original! 

Jueju, No. 1 of 2 (In Late Sun, the River and Hills are Beautiful)

Du Fu

遲日江山麗
春風花草香
泥融飛燕子
沙暖睡鴛鴦

In late sun, the river and hills are beautiful,
The spring breeze bears the fragrance of flowers and grass.
The mud has thawed, and swallows fly around,
On the warm sand, mandarin ducks are sleeping.

(translated by Mark Alexander)