The Book of Tea

Last week Benny was sick poor soul and his only solace was pots and pots of green tea. Jasmine, hyson, sencha; green with lap sang sou chong, green with peppermint.  It made our house beautifully fragrant, and prompted me to dust off one of my favourite possessions: Okakura Kakuzo's 1906 treatise The Book of Tea.

Kakuzo was born in Japan but lived (aptly) in Boston, and wrote this book as a way of introducing Americans to the exquisite lineage and lore of tea. The book, elegiac and reflective, is phrased with the perfection and precision of a tea ceremony.

Here are some lovely bits, not all of them about tea:

There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it irresistible and capable of idealisation...It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa.

Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

The heaven of modern humanity is indeed shattered in the Cyclopean struggle for wealth and power. The world is groping in the shadow of egotism and vulgarity. Knowledge is bought through a bad conscience, benevolence practised for the sake of utility. The East and West, like two dragons tossed in a sea of ferment, in vain strive to regain the jewel of life. We need a Niuka again to repair the grand devastation; we await the great Avatar.

With what deep murmurs

Today a little-known poet. A man who deeply admired George Herbert and so has been largely in his shadow.  Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) was an interesting character, a physician and poet whose twin brother Thomas was a philosopher and alchemist. He gave himself unusual names: the Swan of Usk, the Silurist - references to the Celtic past of his native Wales. Some of his poems are so obviously imitative of Herbert's (even having the same titles and shapes) that they are easily dismissed, but others have a true merit and genius of their own. Here's a lyrical, sensuous, almost onomatopoeic poem called “The Waterfall.” 

With what deep murmurs through time's silent stealth
Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat'ry wealth
Here flowing fall,
And chide, and call,
As if his liquid, loose retinue stay'd
Ling'ring, and were of this steep place afraid;
The common pass
Where, clear as glass,
All must descend
Not to an end,
But quicken'd by this deep and rocky grave,
Rise to a longer course more bright and brave.

Dear stream! dear bank, where often I
Have sate and pleas'd my pensive eye,
Why, since each drop of thy quick store
Runs thither whence it flow'd before,
Should poor souls fear a shade or night,
Who came, sure, from a sea of light?
Or since those drops are all sent back
So sure to thee, that none doth lack,
Why should frail flesh doubt any more
That what God takes, he'll not restore?

O useful element and clear!
My sacred wash and cleanser here,
My first consigner unto those
Fountains of life where the Lamb goes!
What sublime truths and wholesome themes
Lodge in thy mystical deep streams!
Such as dull man can never find
Unless that Spirit lead his mind
Which first upon thy face did move,
And hatch'd all with his quick'ning love.
As this loud brook's incessant fall
In streaming rings restagnates all,
Which reach by course the bank, and then
Are no more seen, just so pass men.
O my invisible estate,
My glorious liberty, still late!
Thou art the channel my soul seeks,
Not this with cataracts and creeks.

Lines to live by

I like a good aphorism.  I have a collection of them on post-its festooning my (ye olde) PC at work, and I added one today that I thought was worth a mention, though Google hasn't yet provided me with a source. Anyway it's this: “Live not for things but for the meaning of things.” I liked it because I think it describes my natural habit of mind as well as the way I want to live.

Just because, here are some of the others:

“Well begun is half done.” - Horace. Very useful for getting me to start things.

“Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself.” - Milton. A good reminder to keep it real.

“Nothing is more human than a book.” - Marilynne Robinson.  How true.  

“A faithful study of the liberal arts humanises character and permits it not to be cruel.” - Ovid. Take that, science!

I also have a fat book of Quotations on my desk from which I regularly refresh myself.  Pearls in the tea of my working life.

A new leaf

Welcome to the new look! Beautifully designed and hand-coded by Ben, who knows how to do these things. Nice, isn't it? And the last change for a while, I promise. Ben tells me the new format is more readable, in part because it's less visually cluttered and in part because of the larger font and spacing. I like it because it looks a bit like a book.

I find it interesting that, in the midst of angst about the death of the book, websites are increasingly imitative of bookish textures and typefaces. There's an attempt to recoup what's lost by simulating tactile, dimensioned, textual artifacts; that old reach for authenticity that ends in still greater artistry. Like many another, I'm attempting to make my website as attractive and interactive as a real book. Nostalgia? Homage? Swagger? Not sure, but either way I think it means books are, and will be, best.

Closing borders

Here’s a nice little piece about the closing of Borders bookshop. I confess I’m in the same guilty boat of reading far more books than I paid for in Borders over the years. It’s always, always cheaper to get your books online or secondhand, but if you just want to hang out in a bookish atmosphere, (especially when you find yourself in a busy shopping mall with a rising sense of hysterical misanthropy), Borders is best. Indeed, it’s the place to be, if not the place to buy. Unfortunately that’s not a sustainable ‘business model.’

Retailers can complain all they want about business moving across (actual) borders and online, but let’s face it, that’s the way the great human herd is migrating. Same with music. ‘The artist formerly known as’ can storm and hiss about the digital music economy, but ultimately it’s the artists who really change, who morph their business model, that survive: to wit, Radiohead. Retailers have to go where desire is, and for now that’s online. But what about the unmet desire for a place to meet with books? I think it’s time for the public library to morph.