Indeterminacy 78

Now giving lecture on Japanese poetry.
First
giving very old Japanese poem, very
classical:
¶ Oh
willow tree, // Why are
you so sad, willow tree?
// Maybe baby?
¶
Now giving nineteenth-century
romantic Japanese poem:
¶
Oh bird, sitting on willow
tree, // Why are you
so sad, bird? //
Maybe baby?
¶
Now giving up-to-minute
twentieth-century Japanese poem, very modern:
¶
Oh stream,
flowing past willow tree,
// Why are you so sad,
stream? // Baby?

- John Cage