Our Best Suiseki

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El Capitan, WxHxD 11x15x8.5in, Trang Vo-Le & Phat Vo, Kern River stone. Photo by Mas Nakajima and Janet Roth.

Maybe one of our best suiseki.

Our suiseki at San Francisco Suiseki Exhibition 2017, named El Capitan by Janet, with daiza from walnut designed by Mas.

Size WxHxD 11x15x8.5in, weight 97lb

Another photo by Eric Stoner, Aiseki Kai photographer.

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El Capitan, WxHxD 11x15x8.5in, Trang Vo-Le & Phat Vo, Kern River stone. Photo by Eric Stoner

Above the Mountaintops – Goethe

Above the Mountaintops
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(Translated, from the German, by Rita Dove)

Above the mountaintops
all is still.
Among the treetops
you can feel
barely a breath—
birds in the forest, stripped of song.
Just wait: before long
you, too, shall rest.

Trên Đỉnh Núi
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Võ Tấn Phát dịch

Trên đỉnh núi
Thảy lặng thinh.
Giữa ngọn cây
Bạn có nghe
Hơi thở khẽ —
chim giữa rừng,
trừ tiếng hót.
Kiên nhẫn nhé:
Không lâu đâu
Bạn yên nghỉ.

(Thanks to Nguyễn Huy Hoàng for pointing out this new translation)

Woodblock by Fumio Fujita

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe

How happy is the little Stone – Emily Dickinson

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Hotei Pointing at the Moon, by Fugai Ekun


How happy is the little Stone

Emily Dickinson

How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn’t care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears—
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity—

—————

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Kern River stone. Photo by Mas and Janet

Đá nhỏ hạnh phúc
Emily Dickinson
Võ Tấn Phát dịch

Đá nhỏ hạnh phúc
Ngao du một mình,
Không màng danh lợi
Dục vọng không phiền;
Áo nâu nguyên sơ
Thế giới trao tặng,
Độc lập như nhật
Tự sáng tự hội,
Thỏa chí tuyệt đối
Tự tại đơn giản.


Source: https://hellopoetry.com/poem/2826/how-happy-is-the-little-stone/

Picture source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/77179