Violent death of a short-lived massive star. Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, used IBM's Blue Gene/P supercomputer to visualize a core collapse supernova. Image: Hongfeng Yu.

Wandering at Oblique Creek

This new year makes it fifty suddenly
gone. Thinking of life’s steady return

to rest cuts deep, driving me to spend
all morning wandering. Skies clear,

air’s breath fresh, I sit with friends
beside this stream flowing far away.

Striped bream weave gentle currents;
Calling gulls drift above idle valleys.

Eyes roaming distant waters, I find
Ridge above ridge: it’s nothing like

Majestic nine-fold immortality peaks,
But to reverent eyes it’s incomparable.

Taking the winejar, I pour a round,
and we start offering brimful toasts:

who knows where today might lead
or if all this will ever come true again.

After a few cups, my heart’s far away,
and I forget thousand-year sorrows:

ranging to the limit of this morning’s
joy, it isn’t tomorrow I’m looking for.

T’ao Ch’ien
Translated by David Hinton

SV TATOOSH POSITION 45* 44.044' N by 122* 51.695' W

Right now....off to Nahcotta to the Moby Dick Hotel. Hiway 30 NW to Astoria. Over the bridge to Illwaco....up to Willapa Bay. Oyster talk.