Franz Kafka Interviews Tao Qian by Koon Woon

Franz Kafka (briefly) Interviews Tao Qian

Preamble:

Anywhere there is water

There I dip my line

Life can reside in depths

Truth is a bad deal, my friend,

It ruptures the Bohemian night

Fuzzy Wuzzy was he

But logically he was not he

My line drifts

Note:

Neither Franz Kafka nor Tao Qian knew of each other nor cared about fame. And they lived literally worlds apart in time and space. What follows is a brief fictional interview:

F:  Are you afraid of roaches?

T:  Of the kind that moved about, only the kind that moves in high places. I smoke them out.

      They pass legislations and suddenly illegal becomes legal, etc. They eat a meal, walk then as

      far as half a block, and then eat another meal.

F:  I understand that you are a famous poet on China. Is that correct?

T:  Look at it this way, my friend, if you are a successful traveling salesman of restaurant

      cookware, then I am a poet who has drowned himself many times in wine.

F:  I understand you gave up a government post to become a rustic farmer of chrysanthemums.

T:  Yes, my friend, just as you prefer Prague coffeehouses, I prefer anonymity amongst village

      dung. Confucius said there is beauty in all, except some fail to see it.

F:  Thank you, my friend, I must go see my friend Max now.

T: Good-bye, my friend, when you come this way again, look for the house surrounded by five

     willows.

Epilogue:  Friends can be as eloquent as the long Great Wall of China or as terse as a legal brief.                         

                  You can hear each murmur in a crowded courtroom or the silence of a bamboo leaf.

-          Koon Woon, March 6, 2020

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