Tuesday, July 08, 2008

A poem of quiet comtemplation



Surrounded by the beautiful majestic buildings built in the 1800s
o did my spirit sailed as I sat quietly by the Hudson River.

The stillness of Hudson river beckons me into deep thoughts
as I wondered, why did it have to separate two cultures-
of the old town of Troy and the clamor of Albany.

Yet as I lay ashore my dreams of yonder days
like the river, my heart was quiet, lonely, and pained.

A deep longing desire lingers....


Historically, Sir Stamford Raffles- founder of modern Singapore, was also part of the East India Company.


Interestingly read from the net a story of the Hudson river- extracted from http://flickr.com/photos/91454858@N00/2337508954 (beautiful shots of the river in this page too)

"It is named for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609....The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk in Mahican, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois,or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, in Tuscarora, is a river that runs through the eastern portion of New York State and, along its southern terminus, demarcates the border between the states of New York and New Jersey. The Father of Waters would seem to have been known to many tribes by names more or less similar to that which it bears to-day. It is no doubt true—happily true—that very many of the streams of North America bear Indian names. But these have very generally been given to them by the whites, and were borrowed from the tribes living on their banks at the date of the discovery. The waters received the names of the clans hunting on their shores. The red people had no doubt names of their own for some of the streams in which they fished, but it is probable that these were applied to certain reaches only of the rivers most familiar to them. For some of the important lakes the Iroquois certainly had names of their own, for instance, Caniaderi-Guarunté, or, The lake gate of the country, for what is now Lake Champlain, and Andiatarocté, or, Here the lake closes, for Lake George. These significant phrases, as applied to those waters, have been clearly ascertained.When explorers and colonists crossed the ocean they gave, as a rule, the names of the wild tribes to the rivers on which they met them. Very few received European names. The exceptions on the Atlantic coast number just half a dozen; the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Delaware, the James, the Ashley and the Cooper. Of these only one, the Hudson, recalls, the discoverer.Strictly speaking, however, Hendrick Hudson, could not claim the full honors of a discoverer”…………….

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