For My Friends Who, With Me, Find The Obama "Osam" Triumphalism To Be Just A BIT Primitive!

From Jonathan Schwarz' lapidary effort, A Tiny Revolution:

Tao Te Ching, Witter Bynner's translation, chapter 31:

Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil,
A spread of plague,
And the way for a vital man to go is not the way of a soldier.
But in time of war men civilized in peace
Turn from their higher to their lower nature.
Arms are an instrument of evil,
No measure for thoughtful men
Until there fail all other choice
But sad acceptance of it.
Triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill,
And one with a will to kill
Shall never prevail upon the world.
It is a good sign when man's higher nature comes forward,
A bad sign when his lower nature comes forward,
When retainers take charge
And the master stays back
As in the conduct of a funeral.
The death of a multitude is cause for mourning:
Conduct your triumph as a funeral.

Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at May 3, 2011 03:57 PM

Bynner (1887-1968), a Santa Fean, is one of the overlooked poetic lights of the early and mid 20th Century.